This is the tale of an engineer-turned-banker’s journey over thirty four years at State Bank of India and, thereafter, five years at a pivotal role in an asset reconstruction company. It was a trailblazing journey that covered all important segments of banking – from retail banking, to corporate finance, to factoring or trade financing, to foreign exchange management, to banking in the U.

S. , to stressed assets management, to asset reconstruction.

It covers the challenges that the asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) face in India and quotes from the Asian Development Bank Report on ARCs in India (“Recommendations for Changes in the Existing ARC Framework”) and the “Master Circular – Asset Reconstruction Companies” issued by RBI in 2022. Finally, it reviews the working of ARCs in India, specifying three “unimplementable measures”, makes comments and suggestions on the Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee Report, hails enaction of the IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code) as a transformational change and specifies a road map for turnaround of high NPA (Non-Performing Assets) companies.

. .