Banks may see some of their restructured assets turning into bad loans this fiscal with gross NPAs touching around 5 per cent of the system, which calls for an urgent need to revamp the corporate debt restructuring mechanism, according to a BCG-Ficci report, The Economic Times reported.

Jaypee Group, owner of India’s most indebted cement maker, plans to sell some of its plants and real estate in a bid to cut liabilities by about 25 percent. The builder of India’s only Formula One racing track seeks to reduce debt by 150 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) by selling its cement plants in southern and western India, some of its power generation units and property in a year, Suren Jain, managing director at Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd. said in an interview. The flagship Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. has $10 billion of total debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Raghuram Rajan, the incoming governor of the Reserve Bank of India, once called modernising the country’s inefficient and under-developed financial sector a “moral and economic imperative”, the Financial Times reported. Proposing detailed reforms of the sector in a 2008 report, Mr Rajan bemoaned that the primary source of loans for most Indian households was still usurious informal moneylenders, while the financial system was “not able to meet the scale or the sophistication” of India’s large companies, smaller businesses or public infrastructure projects.

India's Lanco Infratech Ltd has started a process to restructure debts totaling 75 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) after economic weakness impacted the performance of some of its businesses such as power and engineering and construction, Reuters reported. If the process is approved by its lenders, Lanco would be the second debt-laden company to go for a major loan restructuring within nine months, after lenders to wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy in November agreed to restructure about 110 billion rupees of its debt.

India’s Tata Steel has announced a $1.6bn writedown on its struggling European division, underlining the chronic difficulties facing steelmakers across the continent, the Financial Times reported. In a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the steel division of the broader Tata conglomerate blamed weak European macroeconomic conditions for the decision, the largest writedown by an Indian company.

India has accused Cadbury PLC of dodging about $46 million in taxes by pretending to produce candy at a factory that didn't exist. A 103-page report by the country's tax authorities, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, accuses Cadbury's Indian unit of manipulating invoices and other documents to get a tax exemption available to companies that began production in new plants in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh by March 31, 2010.

Faced with slowing growth, persistent inflation and sagging investor confidence, India’s government is pinned between conflicting pressures: economists warn that tough steps are needed to avoid long-term fiscal problems, even as political leaders are leery of introducing unpopular measures before important elections this year, the International Herald Tribune reported.

In a growing sign of companies facing difficulties in meeting their financial obligations, banks were approached for debt restructuring in a record 126 cases during 2012 for a collective amount of Rs 84,000 crore (over USD 15 billion), The Indian Express reported. During the last quarter ended December 31, 2012 itself, a total number of 25 cases were referred for Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) for an aggregate amount of over Rs 20,000 crore, shows the data available with the CDR cell of bankers.

One of the world's largest leasing firms has warned India the failure of troubled carriers like Kingfisher Airlines to return airplanes when they cannot pay their bills could put the country's aviation growth at risk by scaring away new funding. ILFC, which owns over 900 aircraft and rents them out to airlines for several years at a time, is the latest industry player to clash with the Indian carrier, whose financial difficulties have left its aircraft grounded since October.

Widespread speculation about the possible reintroduction of estate duty is proving lucrative for many chartered accountants. Clients, mostly high net-worth ones, are seeking advice on how to restructure ownership of assets to avoid the possibility of huge tax payments by their heirs when the grim reaper comes calling, the Economic Times reported. Estate duty, a tax on inheritance of wealth, is known in many countries as the 'death tax'. In the US, estate tax is imposed on the transfer of the 'taxable estate' of a deceased person.