Here's a financial tip no one gives you. If you owe money to the banks, make sure the amount is huge. Then you won't need to worry about paying it back on time. Or, indeed, in some cases, paying it back at all.

This is not a joke. Several top business houses in India owe banks astronomical amounts and have defaulted in repayment. But instead of facing pressure to pay back these loans, companies are routinely given sweet deals: either their loans are 'restructured' in a way that allows a moratorium on interest payments, or their repayment schedule is extended generously.

Also read - Corporate games: can mining baron Anil Agarwal fry fish in its own oil?

In December 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that under RTI, and in the interest of transparency, banks must reveal the names of companies who default. Until now, banks have refused to share this information easily.

In absolute terms, the gross non-performing assets - loans not repaid by borrowers - owed just to state-owned banks was reported at Rs 3.04 lakh crore. That's four times the entire budget for education in India. A large part of these loans will never be repaid by the companies.

Compare this with the farm loan waiver of Rs 70,000 crore given by the government in 2009 that faced huge criticism from free market economists who start beating their chests at the mention of subsidy to the poor in the country.

The Reserve Bank of India so far has not released the details of individual borrowers who have defaulted on repayment of their loans.

In the absence of this, here is a list of the 10 most indebted companies of India, reported by Credit Suisse in its October 2015 report. The debt shown on their balance sheets was till March 2015.

One expects that debt on these 10 companies comprise a major chunk of the non-performing assets of the banks. Though it is unclear how much is the exact amount of non-performing assets against each company, however, just their outstandings make for staggering reading.