India

India is set to swing from being a cautious spender in 2020 to opening the fiscal floodgates as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to pull Asia’s third-biggest economy back from the worst of the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Curbs imposed by the finance ministry on more than 80 government departments and ministries earlier in the year to preserve cash were relaxed this quarter. In addition, this year’s budget will be increased from its current 30 trillion rupees ($407 billion) when new spending plans are announced Feb.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government is planning to extend the suspension of fresh insolvency proceedings for another three months, a move which will provide major relief to corporate borrowers hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Deccan Herald reported. Addressing the Bangalore Chamber Of Industry And Commerce (BCIC), she said the government has taken several measures, including deferment of tax payment date, to help businesses and people.

Indian stocks fell, taking a sudden plunge about one hour ahead of the close as investors assessed the latest coronavirus outbreaks as well as a new lockdown in the U.K, Bloomberg News reported. The S&P BSE Sensex closed down 3% to 45,553.96, the biggest decline since May, with all stocks in the red. Reliance Industries and utilities were the biggest contributor to the losses with the oil refiner down 2.6%. Meanwhile, a broader gauge of about 200 stocks that includes mid caps tumbled 3.4%, the most since May.

OneWeb, the satellite internet group recently rescued from bankruptcy, is expecting to clinch a $400m fundraising next month, its executive chairman said as the company marked a return to business with the launch of 36 satellites, the Financial Times reported. Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Indian telecoms tycoon who with the British government has taken control of OneWeb for $1bn, said two satellite operators and a financial group were in late stage discussions about investing. “We are very close . . . maybe a couple of weeks,” Mr Mittal said.

More than 60 per cent of the corporate insolvency resolution processes (CIRPs) that achieved closure in July-September 2020 have ended up in liquidation, Business Standard reported. The data by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) shows that 68 of the 112 cases closed during this period went into liquidation. While a significant number of cases had faced liquidation in the previous quarter too, it was still only one-third of the total cases that got closure.

Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra’s South Korean unit Ssangyong Motor Co has defaulted on loan repayment of about 60 billion won ($55 million), the Indian company said in a statement to the stock exchange on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Of the total payment that was due on Dec. 14, about 30 billion won was owed to Bank of America, 20 billion won to JP Morgan Chase and 10 billion won to BNP Paribas, Mahindra said. Shares of the Indian automaker fell as much as 1.5% on Tuesday to their lowest since Nov. 23, while those of Ssangyong fell up to 7.72%.

Banks have sought the Reserve Bank of India’s permission to keep accounts of borrowers who are eligible for relief under the August 6 circular in a standstill until the date of invocation of restructuring, multiple people aware of the talks told CNBC-TV18. The Indian Banks Association wrote to RBI on behalf of banks on Wednesday, requesting the regulator to allow standstill status for eligible borrowers, said people in the know, CNBC-TV18 reported.