Nearly a decade into its existence, IBC framework needs to be reimagined

The famous "tareekh pe tareekh" dialogue from the Hindi movie Damini captures where we are now

“A comprehensive law like the IBC is often viewed as a last resort by lenders — an avenue that needs to be explored after exhausting all alternatives. However, this view stems from the lack of a comprehensive vision for the future of a beleaguered borrower,” noted Rajeshwar Rao, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), at a conference on bankruptcy in Ahmedabad (May 6, 2022). His observation — five years after the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code came into being — was a pointer to the convergence of opinion that outcomes under this architecture have not turned out the way it