The Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice in an appeal against the NCLAT order which had held that entries in the balance sheet of the company do not constitute an acknowledgement of liability in terms of Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, India Legal reported. This is for the purpose of filing an application for initiation of the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. The bench comprising Justices R.F. Nariman, Hemant Gupta and B.R.

Seoul’s public transportation operators are in serious financial trouble as the number of bus and subway users sharply dropped last year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Korea Herald reported. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Wednesday that 1.45 billion passengers used regular city and local “maeul” buses last year, down 23.6 percent from 1.95 billion a year earlier. The number of airport bus users dropped 85.4 percent on-year to 2.12 million passengers.

Two Crown Resorts Ltd directors with links to major shareholder James Packer resigned on Wednesday, the first heads to roll after the Australian casino operator was deemed unfit to hold a gambling licence for its new Sydney casino, Reuters reported. The upheaval in the wake of a report commissioned by the state gambling watchdog raised speculation among analysts that the A$6.6 billion ($5.1 billion) company was in play as a takeover target.

Pakistan plans to ask China for relief on payments for power projects Beijing financed over the past eight years, the latest developing nation that’s struggling to repay debt under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, Bloomberg News reported. In informal talks, Pakistan and China have discussed easing terms on the repayment of debt on about a dozen power plants. The parties have canvassed Beijing’s willingness to stagger debt payments, as opposed to lowering equity returns.

Embattled Bangkok-based carrier Thai Airways is to lay off 395 pilots as part of its restructuring and rehabilitation plan, Simple Flying reported. It follows Thai Airways Acting President Chansin Treenuchagron last month saying the airline’s reorganization was on track and progressing well. This round of retrenchment means Thai Airways will now employ less than 1,000 pilots. It’s another hiccup in a litany of problems facing Thai Airways as it struggles to avoid disappearing off the aviation map. The airline first sought bankruptcy protection in May 2020.

The Reserve Bank of India will seek to buy more than 3 trillion rupees ($41 billion) of sovereign bonds in the next fiscal year to support the government’s borrowing plans, Bloomberg News reported. That will exceed the 3 trillion rupees the RBI is expected to spend for the current year ending March. The intention is to cap the benchmark bond yield under 6%, while narrowing its spread with the repo rate to around 150 basis points. This is the first time there’s a clear signal on how much the RBI would spend on bond purchases, as recent market selloffs test its patience.

Japan’s banking regulator is surveying regional lenders on how local businesses are coping with new restrictions to contain COVID-19, as it seeks to forestall a spike in bankruptcies, Reuters reported. The survey by the Financial Services Agency (FSA) follows the government’s roll-out of state-of-emergency measures last month that could destabilise regional economies. While policymakers stress Japan’s banking system remains stable as a whole, the move underscores their concern over the prolonged and widening damage the coronavirus pandemic is inflicting on companies and banks.

Japan’s Topix stock benchmark climbed to a three-decade high on Monday, drawing even more attention to its future amid plans for a sweeping market reform, Bloomberg News reported. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is set to undergo a once-in-a-generation shakeup in little over a year. Japan Exchange Group Inc., which owns the bourse, plans to cut the number of market segments, apply new listing criteria and turn five confusing, overlapping divisions into three simpler sections: blue-chips, start-ups, and the rest.