Bankruptcy Law Reforms

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On 22nd August 2014, the Ministry of Finance created a committee called the Bankruptcy Legislative Reforms Commission (BLRC), headed by T. K. Viswanathan (Former Union Law Secretary and Secretary General Lok Sabha). The mandate of the BLRC was to draft a new bankruptcy law, along the lines of the work done by the Justice Srikrishna-led Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission. The law drafted by the BLRC is a consolidated bankruptcy framework, covering both individuals as well as legal entities, and aims to be a holistic reform of the insolvency resolution process for all entrepreneurs in India. The reforms aim to improve the time taken to resolving insolvency and improve loss given default on repayment on credit. In turn, this can lead to a significant improvement of the ease and cost of doing business in India, and is expected to develop the credit and the debt securities markets.

The Committee submitted its report to the Finance Minister on 4th November 2015. The structure of the report is similar to the work of Justice Srikrishna's FSLRC: the economic rationale and design features of a new legislative framework to resolve insolvency and bankruptcy was in Volume 1 and the draft bill was in Volume 2. A modified version of the draft bill, with public comments incorporated, was tabled in Parliament in the winter session on 23 December 2015. Once it was tabled, a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015 (JPC) was set up to analyse the draft bill in detail. The JPC submitted its report. The report included anew draft of the bill, which was then passed by both houses of Parliament. The bill received President's assent on 28th May, 2016, and is called the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

The Law
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.	Ministry of Law and Justice May 2016
The Joint Parliamentary Committee Report on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015 (with the modified draft of the Code as presented and passed in both houses of Parliament included in the appendix)	Lok Sabha Secretariat April 2016
Volume 1: Rationale and drafting instructions	Ministry of Finance November 2015

Implementation of the law
Report of the Working Group on building the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India.	Ministry of Corporate Affairs October 2016

Data

• The FRG Insolvency Cases dataset

Response to policy proposals

• Response to IBBI Working Group on Group Insolvency

Research

• Watching India's insolvency reforms: a new dataset of insolvency cases by Sreyan Chatterjee, Gausia Shaikh and Bhargavi Zaveri

• Comments on the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debt Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill, 2016 by Pratik Datta, Shubho Roy, Renuka Sane, Rajeswari Sengupta, Anjali Sharma, Ajay Shah, Susan Thomas and Bhargavi Zaveri

• Towards a tribunal services agency by Pratik Datta

• Distortions in land markets and their implications to credit generation in India by K. P. Krishnan, Venkatesh Panchapagesan and Madalasa Venkataraman

• Reforming personal insolvency law in India by Siva Ramann, Renuka Sane and Susan Thomas

• Building the institution of Insolvency Practitioners in India by Anirudh Burman and Shubho Roy

• Corporate insolvency resolution in India: Lessons from a cross-country comparison by Rajeswari Sengupta and Anjali Sharma
  (Published in the Economic & Political Weekly, April 2016)

• The Indian insolvency regime in practice -- an analysis of insolvency and debt recovery proceedings by Aparna Ravi
  (Published in the Economic & Political Weekly, December 2015)

Commentary

• The Indian bankruptcy reform: The state of the art, 2018, by Ajay Shah and Susan Thomas, The Leap Blog, 22^nd December 2018.
• An annotated reading list on the Indian bankruptcy reform, 2018, Rajeswari Sengupta and Anjali Sharma, The leap blog, 14^th August 2018
• The Centre's approach to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has costs, Bhargavi Zaveri, Livemint, 14^th June 2018
• The proper purpose of insolvency law, by Pratik Datta and Rajeswari Sengupta, Livemint, 6^th May 2018
• Disclosure of default: The present SEBI disclosure regulation is adequate by Ajay Shah and Bhargavi Zaveri, Ajay Shah's blog, 11^th January 2018


• Needed: bankruptcy-related disclosures by Diya Uday, Mint, 25^th December 2017
• Commercial wisdom to judicial discretion: NCLT reorients IBC, by Pratik Datta and Rajeswari Sengupta, Ajay Shah's blog, 13^th December 2017
• Understanding the recent IBC (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 by Rajeswari Sengupta and Anjali Sharma, Ajay Shah's blog, 7^th December 2017
• The challenges before insolvency professionals by Latha Venkatesh, Mint, 17^th July 2017
• Essar Steel vs RBI: How a press release became centre of controversy by Maulik Pathak, Jayshree P.Upadhyay, Mint, 17^th July 2017


• Govt working on a simpler insolvency and bankruptcy code for SMEs by Gireesh Chandra Prasad, Mint, 17^th July 2017
• RBI trying to set precedent with large NPA cases: Shardul Shroff by Gopika Gopakumar, Jayshree P.Upadhyay, Mint, 17^th July 2017
• Insolvency professionals in high demand: CAs, cost accountants and company secretaries rush to get qualified by Atmadip Ray, Saikat Das, The Economic Times, 17^th July 2017
• The Indian bankruptcy reform: The state of the art, 2017 by Ajay Shah, Susan Thomas, Ajay Shah's blog, 13^th July 2017
• Issues with the regulation of Information Utilities by Sumant Prashant, Prasanth Regy, Renuka Sane, Anjali Sharma, Shivangi Tyagi, Ajay Shah's blog, 12^th July 2017


• How lines of role clarity are getting blurred by Somasekhar Sundaresan, Business Standard, 12^th July 2017
• You asked for it, so the Bankruptcy Code is here to stay by Sridhar Ramachandran, The Economic Times, 12^th July 2017
• Essar Steel insolvency issue vs RBI: What lies ahead? by Pratik Datta, Business Standard, 6^th July 2017
• Understanding judicial delays in debt tribunals by Prasanth Regy, Shubho Roy, Ajay Shah's blog,01^st May 2017
• Does the NCLT Have Enough Judges? by Devendra Damle, Prasanth Regy, Ajay Shah's blog, 06^th April 2017


• Judicial Procedures will make or break the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code by Pratik Datta, Prasanth Regy, Ajay Shah's blog, 24^th January 2017
• Challenges in the Transition to the New Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code by Rajeswari Sengupta, Anjali Sharma, The Wire, 15^th December 2016
• How will IBC 2016 deal with existing bank NPAs? by Rajeswari Sengupta, Anjali Sharma, Ajay Shah's blog, 05^th December 2016.
• Ushering in insolvency professionals by Anirudh Burman, Rajeswari Sengupta, Business Standard, 20^th November 2016.
• It isn’t enough to focus on Doing Business rankings by Rajeswari Sengupta, Mint, 12^th October 2016.


• Clear the air before enforcing Bankruptcy Code by Anirudh Burman, Rajeswari Sengupta, Business Standard, 9^th October 2016.
• RBI should not regulate asset reconstruction companies by Pratik Datta, Rajeswari Sengupta, Business Standard, 2^nd July 2016.
• Analysis of the recent proposed SARFAESI amendments : are these consistent with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code? by Rajeswari Sengupta, Richa Roy, Ajay Shah's blog, 29^th May 2016.
• Indian bankruptcy reforms: Where we are and where we go next by Ajay Shah, Susan Thomas, Ajay Shah's blog, 18^th May 2016.
• Bankruptcy code: Will the govt be able to achieve its objective? by Anjali Sharma, Susan Thomas, Mint, 10^th May 2016.


• How bankruptcy code will save lenders by Anjali Sharma, Susan Thomas, Mint, 1^st April 2016.
• Implementing the new insolvency law by Aparna Ravi, Business Standard, 27^th March 2016
• The cause of NPAs by Renuka Sane, Anjali Sharma, Susan Thomas, Business Standard, 28^th February 2016.
• Missing pieces in the Bankruptcy Code by Shivangi Tyagi and Bhargavi Zaveri, Business Standard, 25^th February 2016
• Transforming the operational efficiency of tribunals and courts by Pratik Datta, Ajay Shah's blog, 8^th February 2016


• Land market reform is an important enabler of bankruptcy reform by K. P. Krishnan, Venkatesh Panchapagesan and Madalasa Venkataraman, Ajay Shah's blog, 31^th January 2016
• Decoding information utilities under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill by Anirudh Burman, Renuka Sane, an IGIDR FRG interview, January 2016.
• A better bankruptcy regulator by Pratik Datta, Rajeswari Sengupta, Business Standard, 10^th January 2016
• Creditors' dues find precedence over tax recovery in insolvency bill by Lubna Kably, Times of India, 29^th December 2015.
• Smart caFe: A critical building block for a mature market economy by Abizer Diwanji, Financial Express, 29^th December 2015.


• Editorial: SICA…Sarfaesi…NCLT, Editorial, Financial Express, 28^th December 2015.
• Pass bankruptcy bill: A modern code can rescue us from bankruptcy on job creation, Editorial, Times of India, 28^th December 2015.
• Personal insolvency: Lessons from the UK and Australia by Renuka Sane, Ajay Shah's blog, 28^th December 2015.
• Operational versus financial creditors redux, by Jayanth Varma, Prof. Jayanth R. Varma's Financial Markets Blog, 25^th December 2015.
• Building the institution of Insolvency Practitioners in India by Anirudh Burman, Ajay Shah's blog, 25^th December 2015.


• Welcome step forward, Editorial, Business Standard, 23^rd December 2015.
• Bankruptcy code may be turned into money bill, TNN, Times of India, 23^rd December 2015.
• Bankruptcy Bill: The fight against crony capital now has two legs by R Jagannathan, First Post, 22^nd December 2015.
• Firm insolvency process: Lessons from a cross-country comparison by Rajeswari Sengupta, Anjali Sharma, Ajay Shah's blog, 22^nd December 2015.
• Creating a competent insolvency professionals’ pool by Anirudh Burman, Suharsh Sinha, Financial Express, 21^st December 2015.


• Ensuring information access during financial distress by Anjali Sharma, Shivangi Tyagi, Shreya Garg, Financial Express, 17^th December 2015.
• Enabling better judicial outcomes in insolvency by Ashika Dabholkar, Pratik Datta, Financial Express, 14^th December 2015.
• Treatment of individual credit in the draft Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code by Shreya Garg, Renuka Sane, Ajay Shah's blog, 05^th December 2015.
• India should help businesses go bust, Bloomberg, Mint, 01^st December 2015.
• A good starting point by Mritunjay Kapur and Varun Gupta, Financial Express, 30^th November 2015.


• Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill, 2015: The return to reforms by Ashwin Bishnoi, Financial Express, 28^th November 2015.
• An ecosystem to cope with corporate defaults, Editorial, Mint, 26^th November 2015.
• Road to insolvency resolution by Rajeswari Sengupta, Richa Roy, Mint, 26^th November 2015.
• From non-performing to performing by Rajeswari Sengupta, Richa Roy, Mint, 25^th November 2015.
• Fixing bankruptcy, insolvency laws by Sudipto Dey, Business Standard, 22^nd November 2015.


• Setting up the ecosystem for personal credit by Renuka Sane, Ajay Shah's blog, 21^st November 2015.
• The business of going bust, The Economist, 21^st November 2015.
• Bankruptcy reform for India by Nirvikar Singh, Financial Express, 20^th November 2015.
• Learning to let go by Una Galani, Reuters Breaking Views, 18^th November 2015.
• Creditor versus Creditor and Creditor versus Debtor by Jayanth R. Varma, Prof. Jayanth R. Varma's Financial Markets Blog, 16^th November 2015.


• Reducing the barriers to exit, Editorial, Mint, 15^th November 2015.
• Bankruptcy reforms: It's not the ranking that matters by Rajeswari Sengupta, Ajay Shah's blog, 13^th November 2015.
• Dealing With Failure by Susan Thomas, Indian Express, 13^th November 2015.
• Inconsistencies and forum shopping in the Indian bankruptcy process by Aparna Ravi, Ajay Shah's blog, 12^th November 2015.
• Towards a unified insolvency and bankruptcy code by Aparna Ravi, Business Standard, 09^th November 2015.


• Wholesale Reform of Indian Insolvency Law, by Jason Kilborn, Credit Slips: A discussion on credit, finance and bankruptcy, 6^th November 2015.