On a more positive note, Indian firms do have target debt ratios and they adjust towards their target faster over time due to higher speed of adjustment as the half-life (in years) for total debt ratio (1.50), long-term debt ratio (1.82), and short-term debt ratio (1.21) embellish amicable target points. This signifies long-term debt plays a vital role for Indian firms to meet their immediate investment opportunities, expansion, and diversification initiatives. The study documents a statistically negative association of leverage against firm size, firm performance, promoters’ shareholding and debtors turnover exhibiting the facets of pecking-order theory of financing. Further, tangibility, non-debt tax shields, operating costs, R&D intensity, and liquidity detriment mixed results in case of leverage measures depicting the shifts from short-term to long-term debt.