Get more judges: Bankruptcy logjams make India no country for dying firms

Across India, 27 bankruptcy tribunals are being run by 29 judges; at least 25 short of what's required.

A telecom carrier and a retailer are showing a mirror to India’s tryst with assisted corporate demise and rebirth. The image staring back is one of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. As the five-year-old bankruptcy experiment flounders, blame it on what development scholars refer to as “isomorphic mimicry”: Emerging economies ape the form of successful Western institutions but leave them dysfunctional and devoid of content, almost guaranteeing their failure.

Global investors were genuinely excited by India’s 2016 insolvency law, hoping to profit from the 19 trillion rupees ($260 billion) of bad loans, including those written off by banks