INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India’s real estate, construction and infrastructure industries are a ticking time bomb, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has warned
Rajan said the sectors were in “deep trouble,” and the non-bank finance companies which lend to these sectors should have their asset
quality reviewed.
There is also “significant distress in rural areas,” Rajan wrote in an opinion piece in the India Today magazine
India, the former central banker said, is in a growth recession, an economy growing at a slow pace and where unemployment is rising
India’s GDP growth slowed to 4.5% in the quarter ended September, a six-year low
A crisis among shadow lenders and a build-up of bad loans at banks have curbed lending in the economy.
The Reserve Bank of India should
carry out an asset quality review of the non-bank finance companies, Rajan suggested in the piece
The central bank closely monitors the top fifty non-bank financiers, which account for about 75% of total assets in the shadow banking
sector, Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a press conference on Thursday
“We have a fairly good idea of where the vulnerabilities lie,” said Das, reiterating that the central bank won’t allow any large or
systematically important non-bank lender to collapse.
Owing to the financial crisis and the slowdown in the sector, residential projects
worth around USD 66 billion are facing bankruptcy proceedings, a recent survey had said
According to property consultant JLL, nearly 4.54 lakh units running behind their completion dates due to various reasons.
"In the current
scenario, it is the residential real estate segment that presents the maximum amount of stressed assets
India's residential sector has been reeling under the pressure of delayed/stalled projects with 4.54 lakh units running behind their
completion dates," the agency said.
Some of them are already under bankruptcy proceedings and the value of these projects is estimated to be
USD 66 billion, JLL said.
As per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, a total of 115 insolvency cases have been filed as of
September 2019 under real estate category
Of these 87 cases are under process while 28 are closed.