Why India's Zombie Debt Imperils Modi's Plans: QuickTake Q&A

The economy in India is growing faster than just about anywhere else. But there’s a threat to that expansion, one that the authorities are struggling to address: the mountain of bad debt at the nation’s banks. Those soured loans have contributed to a $191 billion pile of zombie debt that’s cast the future of some lenders in doubt and curbed investment by businesses. In the latest push for a solution, the central bank has been handed extra powers over lenders.

The amount of stressed assets at India’s state banks exceeds the value of the banks themselves, according to a McKinsey & Co. report. Provisions made for bad debt by all banks -- private and state -- undershoot by $93 billion the total of stressed assets (which mostly are bad loans and restructured loans). As McKinsey put it, “as these stressed assets continue to turn bad, the entire equity base of the banks could be at risk.”