The Modi administration has started cracking the whip on highly-indebted companies for repayment of loans. Even the Ambanis and Adanis are not being spared. Most affected firms and groups have consequently started preparations for selling off their prized assets to repay their escalating debts. There have sprung up 'for sale' notices on airports, roads, ports, steel plants, cement units, refineries, malls, corporate parks, land banks, coal mines, oil blocks, express highways, airwaves, Formula One teams, hotels, private jets, and even status symbol corporate HQs. Substantial stakes in firms, and in some cases entire companies, are on the block. Indianmandarins's investigations, based on open-source information and published reports, show that the top 10 business houses alone owe Rs 5,00,000 crore to the banks. They are being forced to sell assets worth over Rs 2,00,000 crore. In a three-part series, we will make an effort to inform you of the dimension of the NPA crisis caused by these companies and how they are trying to clean up the slate. In the first part of the series today, we focus on the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group that owes as much as Rs 1,21,000 crore of loans to the banks and had an annual interest liability of Rs 8,299 crore against earnings before income tax of Rs 9,848 crore. Some of the group's firms, like Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Defence, don't earn enough to service the interest outgo. Assets put on sale by the Reliance Group include about 44,000 telecommunications towers (valued at Rs 22,000 crore) and optic fibre and related infrastructure (Rs 8,000 crore) from Reliance Communications (RCom), its flagship firm. Weighed down by about Rs 40,000 crore of debt, RCom has posted a loss of Rs 154 crore in FY14-15, and has continued to post losses in the first three quarters of FY 15-16, accumulating losses of over Rs 2000 crore until December 31, 2015; it is likely to end that fiscal with a net loss too. The company is valued at Rs 13,440 crore, less than a third of its total debts. However, RCom plans to reduce its debts to Rs 10,000 by selling Rs 30,000 crore of telecom assets. Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) is sitting on a pile of debt of Rs 25,000 crore as of February. In November 2015, it agreed to sell a 49 percent stake in its electricity generation, transmission and distribution business in Mumbai and adjoining areas to Canadian pension fund Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). The transaction is expected to reduce the debt of Rs.7,000 crore attached to the distribution business. It agreed to sell its cement business to Birla Corporation for Rs 4,800 crore in February and is looking to sell its entire roads portfolio, valued at Rs 9,000 crore, for which three international bidders have been shortlisted. R-Infra's EBIT stands at Rs 1,686 crore against an interest liability of Rs 1,974 crore. Its market capitalisation at Rs 14,476 crore is Rs 10,000 crore lower than its debt. By sale, of cement, road and the Mumbai power distribution businesses, the company expects to be debt free on a standalone basis by the end of this fiscal. Reliance Capital, with a debt of Rs 24,000 crore, has sold stakes, in phases, in its mutual fund and life insurance businesses to Nippon Life Insurance for Rs 3,461 crore to allow the latter to increase its stake to 49 percent in each of the businesses. It further plans to raise another Rs 4,000 crore by the end of 2016-17 by selling non-core assets, including proprietary investment book and by inducting a partner in its general insurance business. Reliance Capital's debt includes its lending portfolio - commercial l