By Jeff Glekin

MUMBAI (Reuters Breakingviews) – India Inc is feeling the pinch as dollar liquidity dries up. With European banks retrenching, Asian competitors are picking up the slack. It’s nice to have options but Chinese funding is still seen as a last resort. Politically hard to swallow, it often comes with strings attached.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RLCM.NS: Quote, Profile, Research), India’s second-largest mobile phone carrier, has just raised funds from several Chinese banks to refinance $1.18 billion of outstanding foreign currency convertible bonds. At present, it is not clear if any strings are attached to this deal. However, Reliance also borrowed from China last March when China Development Bank arranged loans worth $1.93 billion. Those funds were used to finance the purchase of radio spectrum as well as equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies.

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own)

By Jeff Glekin

MUMBAI, Jan 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) – India Inc is
feeling the pinch as dollar liquidity dries up. With European
banks retrenching, Asian competitors are picking up the slack.
It’s nice to have options but Chinese funding is still seen as a
last resort. Politically hard to swallow, it often comes with
strings attached.

By Jeff Glekin

MUMBAI (Reuters Breakingviews) – The Gandhi name continues to cast a spell on India. Though unrelated to the icon of the nation’s fight for independence, Rahul may well succeed his mother Sonia as head of the ruling Congress party. One of his challenges is to claim the anti-graft message of Anna Hazare, a present-day activist and follower of the Mahatma, before the opposition does.

News reports of Sonia Gandhi’s poor health have brought speculation that Rahul will take over the party leadership in 2012, and may even be Congress’s candidate for prime minister at the next general election in 2014.