India

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday ordered the liquidation of Go First, the budget carrier that stopped flying nearly three years ago after being bogged down by financial woes. In May 2023, the airline filed for a voluntary insolvency resolution process citing financial woes, the Economic Times of India reported. The tribunal, in a 15-page order, said it is ordering the liquidation of the corporate debtor Go Airlines (India) Ltd.

A year ago, India was bouncing back from a recession caused by Covid-19 with a spring in its step. The country had overtaken China as the most populous country, and its leaders were declaring India the world’s fastest-growing major economy, the New York Times reported. This was music to the ears of foreign investors, and to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who at every opportunity boasted about his country’s inevitable rise.

The most valuable startup in India’s history, a tech company with Silicon Valley cachet, a charismatic founder and visions of dominating the online-education business seemed sure to be one of the post-pandemic’s next big things. More importantly, Think & Learn Pvt — more widely known as Byju’s — was willing to pay handsomely to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars in the U.S. just as the world’s central banks were holding interest rates at next to nothing. So when JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley went to line up buyers for Byju’s debt in late 2021, orders poured in.

Economic growth, which surprisingly slumped to a seven-quarter low of 5.4% in the second quarter, is on a rebound as demand has regained momentum, though the stickiness in food inflation warrants careful monitoring, the latest RBI bulletin has said, the New Indian Express reported. The surprise deceleration of growth in the September quarter had led to a rash of downgrades and cat calls for rate cuts. The list of forecasters pegging lower-growth was led by the central bank itself.

Punjab & Sind Bank, the lead lender of Supertech Township projects, has rejected a settlement proposal. The National Company Law Appelate Tribunal (NCLAT) will now take a final decision on the insolvency of the debt-ridden firm, the Times of India reported. The counsel representing Ram Kishore Arora, the suspended director of the firm, informed the NCLAT about the rejection of the settlement proposal on Thursday.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday, reserved its order on the appeals by Glas Trust and Aditya Birla Finance to be added to the committee of creditors (CoC), as well as the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) application to withdraw its insolvency petition against the cash-strapped edtech firm Byju's, the Economic Times of India reported.

Nuvoco Vistas Corp, a key producer of cement in East India, has emerged as the successful applicant to buy Vadraj Cement under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, the Economic Times of India reported. Gujarat-based Vadraj Cement, formerly owned by ABG Shipyard, has a 6 million tonne grinding unit in Surat and will add to Nuvoco Vistas’ existing production capacity of 25 million tonne by more than 20%. Vadraj Cement also has a clinker capacity of 3.5 million tonne in Kutch in Gujarat along with limestone reserves and a captive jetty.

Some big lenders in India have asked the central bank to inject liquidity using foreign-exchange swaps as short-term currency financing costs surged to a four-year high, Bloomberg News reported. In recent informal interactions, some lenders asked the Reserve Bank of India to consider using FX swaps, where the parties simultaneously agree to exchange currencies in the spot market and reverse the transaction at a future date, the people said. Such operations could effectively inject rupee liquidity into the financial markets.