India’s prime minister Narendra Modi this month unveiled plans to sell down government holdings in public sector banks, potentially injecting Rs1.6tn ($26bn) of capital into the banking system. But many analysts remain doubtful over the viability of the recapitalisation and how much it could raise, the Financial Times reported. Few disagree that banks in Asia’s second-largest economy need funds. Earlier this year, India admitted it needed to find an extra Rs2.4tn, with a particular focus on struggling state-backed lenders, which control around three-quarters of assets.

In the shadow of a group of enormous smokestacks and abandoned foundries, a peeling sign welcomes visitors to the Wenxi Steel Industrial Park. But in the nearby village, the working-age men and many of the women have gone, leaving only the elderly and the very young, the Financial Times reported.

In a gritty industrial park here, 59-year-old Zhou Shoufang is leading hundreds of co-workers in a fight for pension benefits at a toy factory, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Zhou is part of China’s first generation of migrant workers, people who left their farms decades ago to work on assembly lines in coastal cities and who are now nearing retirement age. Such workers have until recently focused on securing higher wages.

Every urban real estate market is different in mainland China, driven by myriad municipal and provincial regulations and the varying strength of local economies. But the outcome is the same: The property market is under serious pressure, the International New York Times reported. Prices for newly constructed housing fell 1 percent to 9 percent in recent months in all 70 mainland cities tracked by the national government, according to data released Thursday. Prices kept falling in November compared with October in all but three cities, where they were unchanged.

Din Ruenmeesang spends about half his monthly income making minimum payments on his seven credit cards and multiple bank loans. That isn’t stopping the 33-year-old from borrowing again to buy a new car next year. Spenders like Din are making it hard for Thailand’s central bank to cut interest rates even as Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy struggles with weakening growth. Thai household debt has more than tripled in a decade to a record high 83.5 percent of gross domestic product, and lower borrowing costs may exacerbate that.

India’s government said banks may be asked to lend as much as 6 billion rupees ($94 million) to billionaire Kalanithi Maran’s SpiceJet Ltd., as the indebted airline seeks investment over the next two months to keep flying, Bloomberg News reported. The loans would be guaranteed by Maran and repaid as soon as investment was secured, part of a package of steps to prevent a shutdown that would damage India’s airline industry, the government said in New Delhi late yesterday.

Showing classic symptoms of a mania, Chinese investors are borrowing heavily to buy stocks and flipping them quickly, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. On average, they are holding them for barely two weeks, compared with four months in the US. This is just the latest frenzy to hit China and its origins date back to 2008. After the global financial crisis hit, Beijing tried to sustain its growth rate by pouring record amounts of money into the economy.

China has set up a fund to bail out trust firms that run into trouble, putting a safety net under a major portion of the country’s fast-growing shadow-banking sector, which has played a big role in financing riskier areas of the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The creation of the fund was announced by the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Finance on Friday, on the heels of an insurance program that will soon provide protection for bank deposits.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group on Thursday announced measures to ease financial burden on drought-hit farmers in Queensland and New South Wales states, bowing to government pressure to stop farm foreclosures. Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce issued an ultimatum to the country's major banks, telling them to stop throwing drought-stricken farmers off their properties or risk government intervention, the Australian newspaper reported.

A 25-year-old solar energy company has collapsed into voluntary administration, letting go a number of staff, but administrators say proposals on the table to recapitalise the business could offer the company a lifeline. CBD Energy is the latest in a long string of solar companies to fold this year, with commentators labelling the industry a “roller coaster” market. A second meeting of creditors will be held next week on December 19, with Grant Thornton Australia’s Trevor Mark Pogroske and Said Jahani acting as administrators, after being appointed on November 14.