The government-backed National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) won the bid for Srei group's two companies -- Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd and Srei Equipment Finance Ltd -- undergoing insolvency proceedings, an official said, the Economic Times of India reported. The Committee of Creditors on Wednesday approved the plan submitted by NARCL, which offered a Net Present Value (NPV) bid of Rs 5,555 crore, after it received the highest vote of 89.2 per cent from verified creditors.

Thousands of retirees confronted local officials and the police outside a popular park in the central Chinese city of Wuhan to demand the repeal of recent cuts in government-provided medical insurance for seniors, the New York Times reported. The protest on Wednesday, the second in Wuhan in a week, was the latest sign of strain on the finances of China’s local governments, which are responsible for covering much of the cost of everything from health care to heating homes.

Adani Enterprises, the flagship listed vehicle of the beleaguered Adani Group conglomerate, has long pitched itself as a good environmental, social and governance company—but it has coal to thank for a reprieve during the most turbulent time in its history, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. On Tuesday, Adani Enterprises swung to a profit of 8.2 billion Indian rupees ($99.3 million) in the quarter ended in December, from a loss of 116.3 million Indian rupees in the year-earlier period, helped by robust revenue growth of 42%.

China must stop taking positions that block debt relief to some of the world’s poorest nations and be willing to take losses on its loans to them, India said in its capacity as the current Group of 20 leader, Bloomberg News reported. “China needs to come out openly and say what their debt is and how to settle it,” said Amitabh Kant, the sherpa for India during its presidency of the G20 this year. “It can’t be that the International Monetary Fund takes a haircut and it goes to settle Chinese debt. How is that possible?

India's Adani Group has appointed accountancy firm Grant Thornton for independent audits of some of its companies in a bid to discredit claims by short-seller Hindenburg Research that have battered its stocks and bonds, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday, Reuters reported. The appointment marks the first major effort by Adani Group to defend itself in the wake of a Jan. 24 report by Hindenburg that accused it of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation.

The next boss of Japan’s central bank may eventually chart a course away from the “yield-curve control” policy championed by the ancien regime. But investors probably shouldn’t expect a radical change in Japan’s monetary policy overnight, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Japanese government on Tuesday nominated Kazuo Ueda to become the next governor of the central bank, confirming last Friday’s media reports of the surprise pick. Current governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who oversaw a program of aggressive and unorthodox monetary easing, will end his 10-year stint in April.

Damages from deadly earthquakes in Turkey last week will probably exceed $20 billion, the risk modelling company Verisk estimated on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Only a fraction of the damages - likely more than $1 billion - is covered by insurance, Verisk said. The figures come on top of the enormous loss of life from the disaster, with the death toll having risen to 31,974 by Tuesday. Earthquakes are relatively common in Turkey, and despite regulations to build to protect against earthquakes, results have been "mixed", Verisk said.

India's annual retail inflation in January rose above the central bank's upper threshold for the first time in three months, on higher food prices, vindicating last week's hawkish monetary policy stance, Reuters reported. India's annual retail inflation rate rose to 6.52% in January from 5.72% in December, government data showed on Monday. January's retail inflation was above the Reserve Bank of India's upper targeted limit of 6% for the first time since October and much higher than the 5.9% estimate, according to a Reuters poll of 44 analysts.

Talks between the International Monetary Fund and Pakistan will resume virtually on Monday, a Pakistani official said, as the two sides look to reach a deal to unlock funding critical to keep the cash-strapped south Asian country afloat, Reuters reported. The two could not reach a deal last week and a visiting IMF delegation departed Islamabad after 10 days of talks, but said negotiations would continue. Pakistan is in dire need of funds as it battles a wrenching economic crisis.

Japan’s currency is resisting the urge to join in on a period of relative calm, Bloomberg News reported. Volatility has stayed high ever since the Bank of Japan lifted the cap on Japanese bond yields in December. Uncertainty about the outlook of future policy moves is keeping yen traders on edge more so than their counterparts who trade other global assets, including Japanese equities. The yen initially strengthened on Friday after a report that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will nominate Kazuo Ueda to take the helm of the central bank.