National Council of Applied Economic Research
This webinar on Recalibrating the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was the third of our monthly webinar series titled ‘Conversations with NCAER’, held virtually on December 14, 2021. NCAER hosted Shri Jayant Sinha, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Mr M.S. Sahoo, Former Chairperson, IBBI, and Mr Pallav Mohapatra, CEO, ARCIL for this conversation. The discussion was moderated by Ms Mythili Bhusnurmath, Senior Adviser, NCAER.
The discussion in the webinar centered around the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) enshrined in the Act of 2016, which was initially seen as the answer to the long-standing woes of banks in recovering their dues, especially from corporates. By correcting the skewed relationship between corporate borrowers and banks and ensuring a more balanced relationship, IBC was meant to actualise capitalism’s famed promise of creative destruction. Instead, five years later, it is still seen as a work in progress. The panelists discussed that the progress is slow indeed, so much so that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, headed by Jayant Sinha has come down heavily on the working of the IBC and called for an extensive overhaul of the Code. The backgrounder note available on this webpage talks about this in detail.
Jayant Sinha is a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, and has served as Minister of State for Finance and Minister of State for Civil Aviation in the Government of India. He is currently the Chairperson for the Standing Committee on Finance and a member of the Public Accounts Committee for 2019-2020. He has also been an investment fund manager and management consultant. Jayant holds an MBA from Harvard, an MS in Energy Management & Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BTech from IIT Delhi.
M.S. Sahoo is the former Chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. He has four decades of professional experience, including two decades in the regulation of markets and professions, as Chairperson, IBBI, Member of the Competition Commission of India, Secretary of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Whole-time Member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and Economic Adviser with the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. As a Member of the Indian Economic Service, he has served several Ministries in the Government of India. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Mumbai. His other academic qualifications include M.Phil, M.A. (Economics), LL.B, FCS, and PGDM.
Pallav Mohapatra is Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd., ARCIL. Earlier he served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Central Bank of India. In his four decade-long banking career, Mohapatra was also Deputy Managing Director, Stressed Assets Management Group at SBI, and handled the bank’s operations in Los Angeles, USA. He was also CEO of the bank’s credit cards business, SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd.
Mythili Bhusnurmath is Senior Adviser, NCAER and Consulting Editor, ET Now TV. She holds a Master’s in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers. She also holds a law degree from Delhi University. She worked with the State Bank of India and Reserve Bank of India before moving to journalism in 1993. She was Opinion Page Editor, The Economic Times, and Editor, The Financial Express.
