The irony is hard to miss. Ten months later, the Essar saga finally ended. Lenders received about ₹42,000 crore, roughly 85 per cent of their claims, or about 276 per cent of liquidation value. Patience paid. But it took an extraordinarily long time to discover that it would. That is the dilemma India’s insolvency system has struggled to resolve: What does waiting cost today, and what might waiting return tomorrow?
About a decade after the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) came into force, banks appear to have answered that question for themselves. Increasingly, when faced with a stressed borrower, the question is no longer whether to invoke the IBC. It is becoming: Koi aur tareeka batao — show me another way.
The…