A few months ago, a senior tax consultant walked up to me at a function and started talking about the dramatic changes in the behaviour of the Income Tax department.Now, everything has been streamlined and is online. No more visits to tax department, no more intrusions, no more energy-sapping waits at tax offices. I thought about this conversation when India jumped 30 places in the EODB ranks helped by a sharp improvement in the paying taxes category.But before Team Modi celebrates here is an example of a different perspective. Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, is not a man to beat around the bush. In a panel discussion at the ET Awards on October 28, Mittal said ease of doing business still remains major concern and asked the government to do more.He cited the example of how poor African countries are able to approve/process mergers of group companies faster than India. It takes up to five months to get approval for merger of 100 per cent subsidiary with the parent while in Ghana it took only three days.The true picture of the effectiveness of the government’s EODB programme is somewhere in between Mittal’s lament and the consultant’s rosy picture of dramatic improvement.A lot of good work has been done but lot more needs to be done. Last week, a change in the bankruptcy laws sent triggered a similar outcry among businessmen, bankers and media intelligentsia. The Modi government woke up late to realise that the bankruptcy law as it exists would allow defaulting promoters to buy back their assets at a sharply discounted rate from banks.Current rules allow them to bid for their own assets. The government amended the Act to bar defaulting promoters from bidding for their own assets. Banks predictably led the charge by claiming that this would rob the bidding process of competitive intensity.They would get lower bids as promoters would be absent! The debarred promoters were obviously unhappy and there are murmurs that some of them would challenge it in court.The problem is that the protagonists don’t seem to realise that rules of the game have changed. One of the biggest initiatives of the Modi government has been to level the playing field and rob promoters, businessmen and even ordinary individuals of the unfair advantage they had of beating the system because of the political and money power they wielded.This is not the first time that Indian banks are experiencing a bad loan problem. But this is the first time that a government is forcing banks and promoters to do the unthinkable!Solve the problem through an orderly bankruptcy process and set aside capital for loans. We all know stories of how corrupt promoters and bankers hoodwinked the system in the old days by evergreening loans and how political power was used to force banks to lend more money and accept generous restructuring terms.The Modi government took a giant leap last year by getting bankruptcy law passed. This year, they have gone a step ahead by barring promoters from bidding for their own assets thereby ensuring that there will be no repeat of past mistakes when loans were restructured without the errant promoters losing anything. Unless things change, errant promoters will lose this time and that’s a big step towards a more transparent and cleaner way of doing business.I don’t accept the banks’ argument about a drop in bidding intensity. Good assets and good companies will always attract bidders. Some of the biggest names in Indian and global steel industry are lining up to bid for Essar Steel. Do banks seriously think that they will not get a good price for the asset? Secondly, why depend upon promoters to raise your bid price when they have not paid you for so many months and years?How did the banks think the promoters will somehow get money to bid for their assets? If they suspected that promoters had stashed money abroad, why did they not go after them in the first place when the interest was not getting repaid?GST, Rera, Demonetisation, bankruptcy code are pushing Indian businesses to adapt new ways, change old practices and be transparent in dealings with outside world. It is disruptive and painful. But like bitter medicine that cures illness and puts you back on your feet, it may just be enough to set Indian businesses and banks onto a new revolutionary path!