According to a report released by Ernst & Young, there were a total of 391 merger and acquisition deals in India in the first two quarters of 2013.

The value across all the recorded merger and acquisition deals was at US$15.2 billion, or INR90,000 crore. Around two-thirds of the amount are inbound deals. The ratio is equivalent to around US$10 billion, or INR59,000 crore, in Indian assets being sold and bought in the first half of 2013.

Amit Khandelwal, an Ernst & Young Transactions Advisory Services representative, explained, "Increasing clarity on the tax and regulatory front is likely to spur more inbound deals. Local deal activity is likely to be driven by restructuring and consolidation, since several domestic players have accumulated huge debts on their books."

PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Equity & Transaction Services executive Sanjeev Krishnan said that increasing interest rates and the prevailing liquidity crunch had opened a door of opportunities for private equity funds in India.