Indian Bankruptcy Code: Impact on Markets and the Economy

The Law Faculty and the Commercial Law Centre at Harris Manchester College partnered with the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India for a conference on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.

The Code was a landmark reform that followed decades of complaints about the operation of India’s corporate insolvency laws. The new law has been designed to improve the prospects of preserving the value of the insolvent debtor’s estate (including by reducing delays in the disposal of insolvency cases, a significant problem under the old law) with a view to improving access to finance for all debtors.


The conference was held at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on December 16, 2019, and featured sessions on the Code and the Indian economy, the impact of the Code on corporate governance, business practices and capital markets, the market for stressed assets in India, and reforms for the future. Speakers included Dr M.S. Sahoo, the Chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, Dr Bibek Debroy, the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, and Mr Ajay Tyagi, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The program was designed by Mr Debanshu Mukherjee (BCL’13), a co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy who leads its financial regulation and corporate law vertical.

 

Kristin van Zwieten delivered the keynote address at the conference, the full text of which is available here. Recordings of the proceedings are also available on the Vidhi Centre youtube channel, here. The event was covered in the Times of India and Outlook India, among other newspapers.

 

The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy was founded by Oxford Law alum in 2013, and many Oxford graduates have joined its staff over the years. You can read more about its work and impact here.