India's federal investigation agency has filed a police complaint against ABG Shipyard Ltd and its promoters accusing it of defrauding banks of 228.42 billion Indian rupees ($3.03 billion), Reuters reported. The report, posted on the Central Bureau of Investigation's website, said a forensic audit report it received from the banks two years ago had found instances of fraud in April 2012 and July 2017. The shipbuilder, identified by the central bank as one of India's "dirty dozen" highly indebted companies, has filed for bankruptcy resolution.

More than 25,000 people died by suicide due to either unemployment or bankruptcy between 2018 and 2020, the Union home ministry told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the Economic Times of India reported. A total of 3,548 people committed suicide due to unemployment in 2020 (when the first wave of Covid-19 hit), 2,851 in 2019 and 2,741 in 2018, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said while replying to a written question. As many as 5,213 people committed suicide due to bankruptcy or indebtedness in 2020, 5,908 in 2019 and 4,970 in 2018.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed the liquidator of Sterling Biotech to stay the auctioning process of the company until further orders, the Economic Times of India reported. The NCLT was hearing a petition filed by one of Sterling Biotech’s successful qualified bidders, India Gelatine and Chemicals Ltd. Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech is the world’s sixth-largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical gelatin and owes over Rs 8,100 crore to financial and operational creditors.

Indian bonds gained after the central bank scrapped a weekly debt sale amid rising yields with a central bank rate decision due on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond fell as much as 7 basis points to 6.80%. That remains nearly 40 basis points higher this year as record borrowing for the next fiscal year coincided with a global rout in bonds. The 5-year bond yield was down 6 basis points to 6.38%.

Tax havens could come in the way of cross-border insolvency laws, with Videocon Oil and Nirav Modi's Firestar International, two recent examples of Indian companies owning foreign assets that are undergoing insolvency proceedings in the country, demonstrating why this is so, said legal, insolvency and banking experts, the Economic Times of India reported. Videocon Oil has assets in Brazil and Indonesia, owned through intermediate companies located in jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cayman Islands.

India’s central bank rejected bids for bonds at the weekly auction following a surge in yields spurred by the government’s record-borrowing program, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank of India didn’t accept any bids for the 2026 and 2035 bonds at Friday’s auction, as traders probably asked for higher yields. It sold only 105.3 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) of notes, compared with 240 billion rupees on offer, the RBI said in a statement.

Lenders to Future Retail, the company being fought over by Reliance Industries and Amazon.com Inc , have told India's Supreme Court that its assets should be put up for auction after it missed payments, Reuters reported. They also said they have started classifying loans to the country's second-largest retailer as non-performing and would have to make combined provisions of 80 billion-90 billion rupees ($1.1 billion-$1.2 billion) due to the non-payment.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday proposed faster resolution of bankrupt companies by paving the way for amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), seeking to make cross-border deals easier and speed up voluntary unwinding of defaulting borrowers, the Economic Times of India reported. “Necessary amendments in the Code will be carried out to enhance the efficacy of the resolution process and facilitate cross- border insolvency resolution,” Sitharaman said.

India’s record borrowing plan prevents Fitch Ratings from reverting to a stable outlook from negative, keeping alive the possibility of a sovereign downgrade to so-called junk status over the coming year, Bloomberg News reported. The nation has the highest general government debt ratio among peers rated BBB-, Fitch said in a statement a day after India pledged to double down on debt-fueled spending. Active steps to reduce debt is key to revising the outlook, Fitch said.

India doubled down on its spending commitment, relying on an already swamped debt market to borrow and spend big to spur growth, Bloomberg News reported. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration will target a budget deficit of 6.4% of gross domestic product for the year starting April 1 -- wider than the median 6.1% seen in a Bloomberg survey -- as it prioritizes growth over fiscal consolidation.