The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) is the regulator for overseeing insolvency proceedings and entities like Insolvency Professional Agencies (IPA), Insolvency Professionals (IP) and Information Utilities (IU) in India. It handles the casesusing two tribunals like NCLT (National company law tribunal) and Debt recovery tribunal.Current chairman of IBBI is M. S. Sahoo

The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI) empowers Banks / Financial Institutions to recover their non-performing assets without the intervention of the Court.

A software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto proposed bitcoin, which was an electronic payment system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to produce a currency independent of any central authority, transferable electronically, more or less instantly, with very low transaction fees. Bitcoin’s most important characteristic, and the thing that makes it different to conventional money, is that it is decentralized. Bitcoin is created digitally, by a community of people that anyone canjoin. Bitcoins are ‘mined’, using computing power in a distributed network.This network also processes transactions made with the virtual currency, effectively making bitcoin its own payment network.The bitcoin protocol –the rules that make bitcoin work –say that only 21 million bitcoins can ever be created by miners. However, these coins can be divided into smaller parts (the smallest divisible amount is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and is called a ‘Satoshi’, after the founder of bitcoin). Bitcoin stores details of every single transaction that ever happened in the network in a huge version of a general ledger, called the blockchain.

Senior IAS officer BN Sharma has been appointed as New Chairman of National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAAP) under Goods & Services Tax (GST). The post of NAAP Chairman is equivalent to the rank of Secretary to Union Government.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the ‘Saubhagya’ (Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana) scheme to provide subsidy on equipment like transformers, meters, and wires and is expected to cover allrural families after expected electrification of all villages by the end of 2018.Note:The total outlay for the Saubhagya scheme will be Rs 16,320 crore.

The French film on AIDS “120 Beats Per Minute”, directed by Robin Campillo, has been awarded the ‘Golden Peacock Award’ for the best film at International Film Festival of India-2017 (IFFI) held in Goa. The Film’s Actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart won the Silver Peacock Award in the best actor male category.

Pluto Exchange, a Dubai-based Cryptocurrency Dealer has launched the India’s first mobile ‘Bitcoin trading app’ fortransacting in virtual currencies. Users of Pluto Exchange’s app will be able to buy, sell, store and spend bitcoins via mobile number using four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN).