Indian corporate insolvency has its own vocabulary — statutory, dense, and everywhere on this platform. The institutions and stages first, then an A–Z of the working jargon. Each term links to where the thing actually lives in the data.
Thirteen concepts that carry most of the meaning. Everything else on this page hangs off them.
What is the IBC?
India’s unified insolvency law. Before 2016 a failing company could hide for a decade across BIFR, DRTs and civil courts; the IBC replaced that maze with one time-bound process: creditors take control, a professional runs the company, and the market decides whether it is revived or wound up.
The single biggest shift: power moved from the promoter to the creditors. Default now means the owner can lose the company.
What is CIRP?
The core process of the IBC. A creditor — or the company itself — files at the NCLT; on admission a moratorium freezes all recovery action and a resolution professional takes over. The process then hunts for a buyer or a revival plan.
Strictly time-bound: 180 days, extendable to 270, hard-capped at 330 including litigation, after which liquidation follows. That clock is why the pipeline moves every week.
What does the NCLT do in insolvency?
NCLT is the court of the process — benches across India that admit cases, approve resolution plans, order liquidations and hear everything in between. Every stage change on this platform traces back to an NCLT or NCLAT order.
NCLAT hears appeals; beyond it lies only the Supreme Court. Landmark insolvency law is largely NCLAT and Supreme Court output.
What does the IBBI do?
The regulator. IBBI licenses every insolvency professional and registered valuer, writes the process regulations, and — crucially for this platform — publishes the public record: admissions, Expression of Interest (EoI) invitations, auction notices, claims and outcomes.
Everything here is built from IBBI, NCLT and MCA public data, structured and kept current.
What does a resolution professional do?
On admission an Interim Resolution Professional takes control of the company from its board. The Committee of Creditors then confirms them — or replaces them — as the Resolution Professional, who runs the company and the sale process. If the case tips to liquidation, a Liquidator (often the same person) sells the assets.
All three roles are held by IBBI-licensed professionals, every one of whom has a profile here with their full case record.
What is the Committee of Creditors?
The financial creditors of the company, voting by share of debt. The CoC is the real decision-maker of a CIRP: it confirms the RP, negotiates with bidders, and approves or rejects plans — a plan needs 66% of voting share to pass.
Its commercial wisdom is near-sacrosanct: courts rarely second-guess a haircut the CoC accepted.
What is the moratorium in IBC?
The freeze that begins the moment a case is admitted: no suits, no recovery, no enforcement of security, no asset transfers by the promoter. It exists to hold the company still — a calm period in which its true position can be assessed and a resolution attempted.
For investors, admission plus moratorium is the starting gun: the company is formally in play.
What is Form G?
Form G is the RP’s published invitation for resolution applicants — the formal doorway into a distressed acquisition. It sets eligibility criteria and a last date for Expressions of Interest; qualifying applicants then get the data room and submit plans.
If you want to buy a company under CIRP, this window is where you enter.
What is a resolution plan, and who approves it?
A binding proposal by a resolution applicant — an ARC, fund, strategic buyer or rival company — to take over the corporate debtor: how much creditors get, how the business runs, what happens to employees and guarantees. Approved first by the CoC at 66%, then by the NCLT.
Once approved it binds everyone, including dissenting creditors and the government.
What is a haircut in IBC?
The percentage of admitted claims that creditors do not recover under a resolution plan. If banks were owed ₹100 Cr and the plan pays ₹35 Cr, the haircut is 65%. It is the single most-quoted number in Indian insolvency — and the most misread.
A fairer lens is recovery against liquidation value: what the assets were actually worth when creditors took charge. This platform benchmarks both, case by case.
What happens in liquidation under the IBC?
If no viable plan emerges — or the CoC chooses it — the company is wound up: a Liquidator sells the assets, as a going concern if possible, otherwise piecemeal by e-auction, and distributes proceeds down the Section 53 waterfall.
Two states matter to buyers: in-process (auctions live, assets on the market now) and dissolved (done, company struck off). We track both.
Can an admitted insolvency case be withdrawn?
Section 7: a financial creditor — bank, NBFC, homebuyers — files. Section 9: an operational creditor, a supplier with unpaid dues, files. Section 10: the company files against itself.
Section 12A is the exit door: the promoter settles with creditors at 90% CoC approval and the case is withdrawn before conclusion — often the fastest resolution of all.
What is an asset reconstruction company?
An RBI-licensed institution that buys bad loans from banks at a discount and then works the recovery — through the IBC, SARFAESI enforcement, or restructuring. ARCs and special-situations funds are the professional buy-side of Indian distress, and the audience this platform’s investor desk is built for.
24 terms you will meet on a case page, in an order, or in a conversation with a professional. Open any one for the longer version.
What is an admitted claim?
Admitted claims are the base for voting share, recoveries and haircuts. A claim not yet verified is “claimed — not yet crystallised”, which is why fresh cases show no debt figure.
What is an AFA for an insolvency professional?
No valid AFA, no new assignments — which is why AFA status appears on every RP profile.
What are avoidance transactions?
Preferential, Undervalued, Fraudulent and Extortionate transactions. A growing body of NCLT orders — and recoveries — flows from these.
What is a corporate debtor?
Every case page on this platform is one corporate debtor’s full record.
What is a CIN?
The registration number inside it (characters 16–21) survives name changes, conversions and even state transfers — it is how this platform tracks a company through everything.
What is EMD in an IBC auction?
Proof of seriousness in a liquidation auction, and forfeited if you win and walk away.
What is the difference between fair value and liquidation value?
Both are set by registered valuers at the start of CIRP, kept confidential during bidding, and are the yardsticks every resolution plan is measured against.
What is the difference between a financial and an operational creditor?
FCs are banks, NBFCs, bondholders and homebuyers. OCs can still trigger insolvency under Section 9. The recovery gap between the two classes is one of the sharpest patterns in the data.
How are NBFCs and housing-finance companies resolved under the IBC?
A handful of landmark cases (DHFL, Srei, Reliance Capital) rather than a routine track.
What are Form A, Form B and Form G?
Form A announces CIRP and invites claims, Form B announces liquidation, Form G invites resolution applicants. Our weekly refresh reads all three feeds.
What is a going concern sale?
Preserves far more value than scrapping it piecemeal, when it works.
What is the insolvency commencement date?
Every statutory clock counts from here — the 180/270/330 days, the claim window, and the look-back periods for avoidance transactions.
What is an information utility?
Default recorded with an information utility is near-conclusive evidence at admission — it removes the “we never defaulted” defence.
Can a promoter who gave a personal guarantee face insolvency?
A large share of NCLT order flow is personal-guarantor cases — tracked separately from the corporate pipeline.
What is a prospective resolution applicant?
The step between “interested” and “has submitted a plan” — the crowd behind every case under evaluation.
What is a pre-pack (PPIRP)?
The promoter and creditors agree terms before the tribunal process starts, which is then compressed. Rare so far, and tracked separately.
What is the Regulation 31(5) claims list?
Secured and unsecured financial creditors, workmen, government, others — with claimed against admitted amounts. The finest-grained public view of who is owed what.
Who can submit a resolution plan?
An ARC, a fund, a strategic rival, occasionally the employees. Must clear Section 29A eligibility.
What is SARFAESI, and how is it different from the IBC?
Runs parallel to the IBC; many companies feel SARFAESI pressure long before a Section 7 filing ever lands.
Who is barred from bidding under Section 29A?
The provision that put teeth in the IBC — with a partial carve-out for MSMEs.
Who gets paid first in liquidation?
Process costs → workmen’s dues and secured creditors → other employees → unsecured financial creditors → government dues and residual secured → remaining debts → shareholders. Where you sit decides what you recover.
Who values a company in insolvency?
Organised under Registered Valuer Organisations across three asset classes: land & building, plant & machinery, and securities or financial assets. The valuer directory → · valuation firms →
What is voluntary liquidation?
Tracked on a separate rail so the distress pipeline stays clean. Voluntary liquidations →
What is a wilful defaulter?
The tag bars fresh bank credit — and, through Section 29A, bars bidding in insolvency.
No term matches that.
Every term above is live somewhere on this platform — thousands of cases, every professional’s record, and a pipeline that moves weekly.