Fall from grace

A shake-up at Standard Chartered could finally turn the screws on India's tycoons. The emerging market lender is slashing costs and shedding billions of dollars of risky assets. That puts Essar, one of India's most indebted conglomerates, on the spot.

StanChart is looking to offload some of its share of loans worth $3.5 billion made to the holding company of the steel-to-ports group backed by the billionaire Ruia brothers. It's an overdue warning …