Japan's manufacturing activity contracted at the fastest pace in 30 months in February, a business survey showed on Tuesday, in a worrying sign for the world's third-largest economy, which is facing weakening demand and struggling to tame cost pressures, Reuters reported. The au Jibun Bank flash Japan manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 47.4 in February, from a final 48.9 in the previous month.

China said it is launching a pilot program for real estate private equity investment funds as part of efforts to promote the property industry, Bloomberg News reported. The investment scope of the funds would include residential housing, commercial property and infrastructure projects, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement Monday. Investors in the pilot products have to put in no less than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) and would mainly be institutional investors, according to the statement. It was unclear when and where the pilot would start.

In October, Hong Kong rolled out the red carpet for crypto businesses to help revitalize the embattled financial hub. Signs are now emerging the push has under-the-radar backing from Beijing, providing impetus for mainland Chinese firms to return, Bloomberg News reported. Representatives from China’s Liaison Office and other officials have been frequent guests at the city’s crypto gatherings over the past months, swapping business cards and WeChat details. The encounters have been friendly, with officials checking on developments, asking for reports and in some cases making follow-up calls.

China Evergrande Group’s weak controls and poor management decisions were to blame for a funding arrangement that ultimately led banks to seize $2 billion of deposits held by a subsidiary, an independent investigation found, the Wall Street Journal reported. The property giant used deposits from six units of Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd., a separate Hong Kong-listed company, to borrow money between late December 2020 and early August 2021, when the developer was in need of capital.

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.