New Delhi imposed a weeklong lockdown on Monday night to prevent the collapse of the Indian capital’s health system, which authorities said had been pushed to its limit amid an explosive surge in coronavirus cases, the Associated Press reported. In scenes familiar from surges elsewhere, ambulances catapulted from one hospital to another, trying to find an empty bed over the weekend, while patients lined up outside of medical facilities waiting to be let in. Ambulances also idled outside of crematoriums, carrying half a dozen dead bodies each.

Millions of people in India in danger of sliding out of the middle class and into poverty due to the economic crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York Times reported. Now a second wave of Covid-19 has struck India, and the middle class dreams of tens of millions of people face even greater peril. Already, about 32 million people in India were driven into poverty by the pandemic last year, according to the Pew Research Center, accounting for a majority of the 54 million who slipped out of the middle class worldwide.

Indian supermarket-operator Future Retail Ltd. approved a debt resolution plan that eases some immediate concerns as a legal battle with partner Amazon.com Inc. threatens to delay an asset sale to Reliance Industries Ltd., Bloomberg News reported. Future Retail’s board agreed to a proposition to restructure its secured bank debt and three rupee-denominated bonds, according to an exchange filing Saturday. The plan, which was accepted by lenders, is subject to approval by a committee formed by the central bank and exchanges.

Real estate firm Wave Megacity Centre has moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) voluntary requesting it to initiate insolvency proceedings against itself as it is unable to clear the dues of the Noida Authority, the Economic Times reported. Wave Megacity Centre Ltd is developing commercial and residential projects in sectors 25A and 32 of Noida, Uttar Pradesh. It has asked NCLT to initiate the insolvency proceedings "due to failure of...

With the number of tourists visiting Himachal gradually decreasing and hotels reporting cancellations of bookings, the hoteliers and others associated with the tourism industry say they are very close to bankruptcy, the Times of India reported. A day after Himachal government had announced that tourists from seven highly-affected states and union territories will need to bring negative RT-PCR report to visit Himachal from April 16, the tourism stakeholders held a meeting in Manali on Monday.

India’s markets regulator fined Yes Bank Ltd. for claiming that riskier bonds it sold to individual investors were as safe as term deposits, Bloomberg News reported.

The Indian economy’s recovery is likely to be shaped like a K rather than a V, as rising inequality is poised to hit consumption and growth prospects, the country’s former central bank governor said, Bloomberg News reported. “An important consequence of the pandemic has been the sharpening of inequalities,” Duvvuri Subbarao said in an April 9 interview. “Growing inequalities are not just a moral issue.

Retailers, restaurants and theatres in India’s richest state are reeling under the impact of harsh restrictions imposed last week by authorities scrambling to curb a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, Reuters reported. The western state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, has been the worst hit in the pandemic, accounting for about a quarter of the country’s 13.5 million case load. Last week, the local government shut down restaurants, bars, gyms, theatres and non-essential stores in a blow to businesses that had barely recovered from the nationwide lockdown last year.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has notified the pre-packaged insolvency resolution process regulations for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on Friday, the Economic Times reported. The norms, effective from Friday, enable the operationalisation of the prepack process, according to a statement from the ministry of corporate affairs. The move comes on the back of the ordinance amending the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to establish the framework for prepacks, promulgated on Wednesday.

Individual investors in India are rushing to buy corporate bonds from weaker borrowers, taking bigger risks to boost returns in a debt market dominated by institutional investors, Bloomberg News reported. Company note sales to retail investors have more than doubled from a year earlier to 67.2 billion rupees ($899 million) so far in 2021. A further 31 billion rupees of bonds that individuals can buy into are being marketed right now, and another 50 billion rupees of such debt is in the pipeline including a deal from India Grid Trust announced late last week.