The government sounds confident that it can crack NPAs with the Insolvency and the Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently said recoveries were increasing and NPAs declining thanks to the IBC. Besides resolutions, the IBC, he says, has engendered fear among defaulting promoters that they might lose their companies if they don't take steps towards solvency. Jaitley was confident that PSU banks are likely to recover Rs1.8 lakh crore bad loans in 2018-19 against Rs 74,562 crore last year. It is yet early days to judge the IBC but numbers suggest the government may be right. Data from the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) shows recovery of around 56 per cent for 12 cases in the June quarter. This is a sharp jump from the 26 per cent before the launch of IBC. Financial Information analyst India Ratings estimates Rs4 lakh crore of Rs 10.2 lakh crore bad loans of the top 500 debt-heavy corporates is likely to be resolved by the year-end. - Aprajita Sharma