An Indian bankruptcy court has to decide on a Rs 10,000-crore question in the case of Reliance Communications Ltd. The decision will have a bearing on the single most important asset of the telecom service provider—its telecom licence, Bloomberg News reported. RCom is under insolvency proceedings before the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal and has been under moratorium since May 15, 2018. The company has spent over Rs 10,000 crore to acquire spectrum, Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam informed the tribunal.

The Hong Kong government will investigate the publisher of the now defunct Apple Daily for fraud, in the latest setback for the company after being forced to shut down the pro-democracy local newspaper last month, Nikkei Asia reported. The territory's financial secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told a hastily called new conference on Wednesday evening he had appointed a special inspector to investigate Hong Kong-listed Next Digital. Apple Daily published its final issue on June 24, after its assets were frozen by the government.

The government’s move to amend the insolvency law to allow pre-packaged insolvency resolution plans for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) with defaults of not more than ₹1 crore is welcome, according to a commentary in the Economic Times of India. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2021, that seeks to replace an Ordinance, will enable the creditor and the debtor to informally work on a rehabilitation plan (instead of financial bidding) without a bankruptcy court’s involvement.

China's move to ban private tutoring firms from making a profit from teaching core school subjects and raising capital is set to trigger a scramble among venture and private equity investors to find an exit after pouring billions of dollars into the sector, Reuters reported. While stricter regulations were expected with China looking to ease pressure on children and the cost burden on parents that has contributed to lower birth rates, private equity industry sources say that they were surprised by the severity of the rules that could kill many companies and block their exits.

The government on Monday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the insolvency law and provide for a pre-packaged resolution process for stressed MSMEs, the Economic Times of India reported. The proposed amendments would enable the government to notify the threshold of a default not exceeding Rs 1 crore for initiation of pre-packaged resolution process. The government has already prescribed the threshold of Rs 10 lakh for this purpose.

A British court on Monday granted a bankruptcy order against Vijay Mallya, paving the way for a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to pursue a worldwide freezing order to seek repayment of debt owed by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, the Financial Express reported. “As at 15.42 [UK time], I shall adjudicate Dr Mallya bankrupt,” Chief Insolvencies and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Michael Briggs said in his ruling during a virtual hearing of the Chancery Division of the High Court.

India’s Supreme Court rejected petitions by telecom companies seeking a reassessment of how much they owe the government, a two-decade-long dispute that threatens the survival of cash-strapped Vodafone Idea Ltd., Bloomberg News reported. A two-judge panel headed by L. Nageswara Rao on Friday dismissed the petitions by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel Ltd. “All applications are dismissed,” Rao said without without giving reasons. A detailed copy of the order is awaited. During the previous hearing, judges referred to a verdict last year that said no recalculation would be allowed.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has revised the eligibility requirements of insolvency professionals hired to run companies undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, Mint reported. Insolvency professionals are required to have experience in any of the professional fields such as management, law, chartered accountancy, company secretaryship, or cost accounting. The new changes give more flexibility to professionals given that some of the professionals may have experience in more than one discipline.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has completed five years, and critics have focused mainly on two issues: large write-offs of loans by the banks and undue losses to stakeholders like employees and minority shareholders, The Print reported. On both these issues, fears and allegations that the IBC has been a failure are not supported by facts or rationale. Let us see why these are misplaced beliefs. The job of creditors is to generate a return in exchange for the risk arising from the disbursement of loans. So, unless it is too high, loss on loans is not an unusual incident.

A self-proclaimed prominent medical academic has been made bankrupt after trying to take legal action over the Whakaari/White Island disaster, Stuff reported. Dr. Miles Roger Wislang was made bankrupt after a hearing in the High Court at Dunedin last month. The application was brought by White Island Tours Ltd. over unpaid legal costs of $62,240.50. The costs arose after he applied for a judicial review application regarding the Whaakari eruption of Dec. 9, 2019, which claimed 21 lives. He argued no visits to the island should have been permitted while the mountain was at alert level two.