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b'In her Budget speech this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announced that the government will set up a \\u2018Bad Bank\\u2019 to better manage the \\u2018bad loans\\u2019 (non-performing assets) of public sector banks. The idea, apparently, is to transfer the NPAs of public sector banks to the books of this Bad Bank, which will function as a two-in-one institution \\u2013 an asset reconstruction company and also an asset management company. It will focus solely on asset recovery, freeing up the banks to concentrate on lending. At least that\\u2019s the theory.\\nBut will it actually work in practice? Will the Bad Bank be effective in cleaning up the NPA mess? If cleaning up the books is the objective, how is a bad bank a better option than, say, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code? We explore these questions and more in a discussion with Vivek Kaul, the author of the bestselling Easy Money trilogy. Vivek\\u2019s most recent book is Bad Money: Inside the NPA Mess and How it Threatens the Indian Banking System.'