India Inc's external borrowing jumps 4-fold to $3.17 bn

India Inc's external commercial borrowing (ECB) jumped by over four times to $3.17 billion in August this year, the Reserve Bank of India data showed on Thursday.

Indian companies had raised only $750.77 million from overseas markets in the same month last year.

Of the total borrowing, $586.57 million were raised via the approval route while $2.59 billion was generated through the automatic category window, showed the data.

In the approval route category, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust raised $400 million for sub-lending and Jet Airways borrowed $185 million for working capital requirements.

The major borrowers using the automatic channel included Export Import Bank of India mopping up $1 billion for sub-lending and Adani Transmission borrowed $500 million for refinancing of rupee loans (84 per cent) and refinancing of earlier ECB (16 per cent).

NTPC raised $298.77 million for power projects, GAIL India raised $300 million, IL&FS Transportation Networks raised $80 million for sub-lending and HDFC raised $74.69 million for further lending purposes.