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.

India has signed the USD 200 million loan agreement with World Bank for Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation project. The project will help the Assam government to facilitate agribusiness investments, increase agriculture productivity and market access, and enable small farm holders produce crops that are resilient to recurrent floods or droughts in the state.

Powerlifting world champion Saksham Yadav lost his life after succumbing to injuries received in a road accident. Saksham Yadav won gold medal for India at powerlifting world champion held in Moscow in December 2017.

Bank of Baroda has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with POORTI (Platform for Online Ordering & Rural Transformation of India) Agri Services Pvt. Ltd to enable farmers to purchase agricultural inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, seeds etc.POORTI provides a multi-party mobile commerce platform in vernacular for easy ordering of fertilizers, pesticides, seeds (beyond a given value) by farmers with loans given by various banks.

IDBI Bank has launched ‘Project Nishchay’ in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to accelerate its turnaround program and improve financial performance. BCG will assist us to identify areas for cost containment and revenue maximization leading to sustainable growth and profitability of the Bank.