Less than a month before India’s budget, risks are growing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will miss fiscal targets for a second year in a row as it gives into populist pressures before a high-stakes election, Bloomberg News reported. Speculation is mounting of possible cash handouts to farmers and tax exemptions to shore up voter support ahead of polls due by May. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party lost control of key states in provincial elections last month. Economists at Nirmal Bang Equities Pvt. and Kotak Securities Ltd.

Jet Airways India Ltd. is running out of money, forcing it to weigh re-starting bailout talks with Tata Group, the nation’s biggest conglomerate, according to people with knowledge of the matter. While its founder and Chairman Naresh Goyal has been discussing a deal with Etihad Airways PJSC, talks with the foreign partner stalled over the latter’s demand that Goyal step aside from his management role, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private, Bloomberg News reported.

Lenders have proposed a turnaround plan for Jet Airways (India) Ltd, news reports suggest. According to a Mint report, local lenders to the troubled airline have proposed a $900 million resolution plan, comprising fresh equity infusion and restructuring of $450 million of its loans, Livemint.com reported. Business Standard reported that State Bank of India Ltd could possibly consider converting its debt into equity. Sure, conversion of debt to equity will bring some relief on interest costs, although it remains to be seen how much equity dilution that may entail.

A financial creditor can seek to first initiate insolvency proceedings against a corporate guarantor of a company, instead of the company itself, in case the guarantee fails, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has held, Business Standard reported. The corporate insolvency resolution process, thus, can go ahead against the guarantor under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), even without having proceeded with and exhausted all legal remedies against the principal debtor, it has said.

India’s heavily indebted Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) said on Wednesday it has received more than 30 expressions of interest for IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd’s (ITNL) domestic road business, Reuters reported. “Interest has been received from a mix of strategic and financial players,” IL&FS said in a statement. ITNL is the biggest subsidiary of IL&FS and manages some of the group’s most valuable assets such as road projects.

Just when they were trying to get past their cash-crunch woes, India’s non-bank financiers may find themselves staring at a new problem: a rise in soured debt amid higher funding costs, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the prognosis about shadow lenders by Washington-based Institute of International Finance, which sees support likely from policy makers as part of their efforts to boost credit growth and bolster the economy ahead of federal elections due by May.

Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets and NTPC Ltd., India’s largest power utility, are among companies interested in buying some of the renewable energy assets of beleaguered shadow financier Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., people familiar with the matter said. GAIL India Ltd. and Solar Energy Corporation of India have also submitted expression of interest to buy the assets, the people said asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public, Bloomberg News reported.

Essar Global Fund’s decision to repay the last tranche of the secured debt at its group entities could have broader ramifications for Essar Steel, the conglomerate’s steel-making business whose future ownership would be decided by the dedicated bankruptcy court, The Economic Times reported. Some in the legal circles believe the move by Essar Group’s holding company could prompt lenders to consider the group’s last-minute offer to repay Rs 54,389 crore and wrest back the control of the debtladen Essar Steel, currently facing insolvency proceedings.

India’s central bank is open to infusing “need-based” liquidity into the financial system, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday ahead of a meeting with the shadow banking sector, which has been hit hard by a funding crunch, Reuters reported. Government officials have pressed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over the past few months to ease lending and capital rules for banks and provide more liquidity to shadow banks.

Reliance Communications has deposited $18.6m at India’s supreme court in a “partial payment” to creditor Ericsson, which is pushing to have its chairman Anil Ambani imprisoned for alleged contempt of court, the Financial Times reported. Last week, the Swedish group filed a petition with India’s supreme court, accusing RCom of breaching a court order to pay $79m in unpaid dues. It alleged that the telecom company had “illegally pocketed” the proceeds of asset sales, instead of transferring funds to creditors.