Governance must be easy, transparent and facilitative: FM Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
| Photo Credit:
SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that frequent legislative reforms, like IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code), reflect India’s responsiveness to changing times. Meanwhile, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju ‘advised’ chief executives of public sector banks to personally keep monitoring the top 20 cases pending for admission and 10 accounts pending for resolution at the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal), pertaining to their banks.

Sitharaman reviewed the performance of the Regional Directorates and Registrar of Companies. Nagaraju chaired a review meeting to discuss the issues related to pending IBC cases.

According to a statement by the Finance Ministry, Finance Minister directed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to come up with a live dashboard to ensure more transparency. Underscoring the goal of a developed nation by 2047, she said, “This vision can only be realised if timely modernisation of the systems and processes take place.”

Calling current times the era of governance, she said that the MCA’s driving principle should be to make governance easy, transparent and with a focus on facilitation. “ The MCA must strive to be futuristic to be able to serve stakeholders in a time-bound manner,” she said.

The Minister stated that the MCA has taken out frequent and required amendments in The Act and Rules to keep up with changing times, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board is one such example of a reform-driven law. “This is done to ensure that the systems are responsive to the needs of today’s India,” she said. Further she credited Indian corporate governance for gaining the trust of citizens by providing transparent financial information. She emphasised the importance of MCA’s role in guiding and regulating companies to ensure their governance structures are well-managed.

As a way forward, “the Union Finance Minister exhorted the MCA officials to find effective ways to convey legal requirements to stakeholders and also suggested holding frequent in-house discussions to suggest measures for enhancing EODB,” the statement added.

Review meeting by Nagaraju

In a separate meeting, Financial Services Secretary Nagaraju emphasised that the timelines pertaining to the admission of corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) applications and resolution of the cases must be adhered to. During the deliberations on the cases where Resolution Plans are pending with the Committee of Creditors (CoC), banks were advised to take a coordinated approach before arriving at the final decision.

“Banks were told to pursue with their counsels for early admission of the pending cases for ensuring a more robust and efficient resolution process, and also to minimise delays in filing CIRP applications in order to expedite the resolution process,” stated another statement by the Finance Ministry.

Banks were advised to take note of IBBI circular dated November, 4, 2025, and ensure that Resolution Professionals file the required undertaking before Special PMLA Court for restitution of assets attached by Enforcement Directorate. “The chief executives of all PSBs were advised to personally keep monitoring the top 20 cases pending for admission and 10 accounts pending for resolution at NCLT, pertaining to their bank. Banks must take swift action to dispose cases where Resolution Plans are pending with CoC,” the statement said.

Published on November 25, 2025