Vodafone Idea Ltd., the beleaguered Indian wireless carrier facing a government demand for billions of dollars in back fees, reported an eighth straight quarterly loss and said a court verdict on a staggered payment plan for the dues is critical for survival, Bloomberg News reported. Net loss was 254.6 billion rupees ($3.4 billion) in the three months ended June, the country’s No. 3 mobile phone carrier said Thursday. It took a one-time charge of 194.4 billion rupees for back fees paid.

India’s banking regulator gave lenders power to restructure certain loans, as authorities look to support an economy hit by the pandemic while ensuring the stability of a financial sector where bad-debt is set to swell to a two-decade high, Bloomberg News reported. Ahead of the expiry of a blanket loan moratorium later this month, the Reserve Bank of India said it will permit banks to strike rescheduling agreements with borrowers that were on track to repay their loans on March 1, in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.

Religare Finvest, which is the NBFC arm of embattled financial services conglomerate Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL), is hopeful of completing its debt restructuring by December this year, The Hindu Business Line reported. “We don’t expect the final restructuring plan to go beyond the third quarter of the year, maybe even earlier than December,” said Nitin Aggarwal, Group CFO, Religare Enterprises Ltd and CEO, Religare Broking, adding that once it is through, the company will be much different.

The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought the Centre’s reply on a plea challenging the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Ordinance which suspended proceedings against defaults arising on or after March 25 for six months in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Hindu reported. A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the Ministry of Law and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) seeking their stand by August 31 on the plea, which seeks setting aside of the amendment made in the IBC by the ordinance.

A keenly watched Indian shadow bank insolvency process has been delayed, highlighting how the virus pandemic is impeding the nation’s nascent bankruptcy regime, Bloomberg News reported. Payments to creditors from Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., whose default in September 2018 triggered a lingering credit crisis in India, are likely to spill over to the financial year beginning April 2021, management said in a call on Monday. It had previously aimed to resolve a bulk of those by this month.

India’s Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) said on Monday it expected to resolve about 57% of its near trillion rupee ($13.35 billion) debt pile even as the pandemic delayed the resolution process in some of the group companies, Reuters reported. About 50% of the debt is expected to be resolved by March 2021, the indebted infrastructure lender’s board said in a progress report, with 18% already addressed as of June end. The board had said in an update in October that it aimed to resolve 50% of the debt by March this year.

The head of India’s largest bank said the country’s escalating coronavirus outbreak risks jeopardising a years-long clean up of the financial system if authorities and lenders aren’t ready to step in and support struggling sectors like aviation or hotels, the Financial Times reported. Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the State Bank of India — India’s largest lender with over $500bn in assets — told the FT that pressures on the loan books of public-sector banks may require further capitalisation by the government, as well as rescheduling of debt and writedowns by banks themselves.

The NCLAT has upheld the NCLT order to initiate insolvency proceedings against HDIL, and rejected the plea of its promoter Rakesh Wadhwan, The Economic Times reported. A three-member bench of the appellate tribunal observed that the NCLT had given ample opportunity to Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) to settle the matter amicably with its lenders, but it has failed to make the payment or arrive at a settlement. Earlier on August 20, 2019, the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had directed to initiate insolvency proceedings a

India’s shadow banks are benefiting from a drop in borrowing costs after government stimulus steps, but the troubled sector faces more challenges ahead as the economy reels from the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The lenders’ borrowing costs declined in June for a second straight month, according to a gauge that’s among four indicators compiled by Bloomberg to check on the health of the industry.

National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has upheld initiation of insolvency proceedings against real estate firm Housing Development and Infrastructure, rejecting company director Rakesh Wadhwan’s appeal against a bankruptcy court order, The Economic Times reported. A two-judge bench of NCLAT, headed by acting chairperson Justice Bansi Lal Bhat, on Monday said there was no need for interference with a National Company Law Tribunal order dated August 20, 2019.