As readers may recall, the adequacy of disclosures in the IPO prospectus pertaining to DLF Limited was called into question in a series of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The process culminated in SEBI passing an order on October 10, 2014 finding that the disclosures were inadequate and thereby restraining DLF, its directors and CFO from buying or selling...
Notice Clause: “On or as soon as reasonably practicable”
Although it is customary to use various expressions in modern commercial agreements, very few such agreements have been the subject matter of interpretation before Indian courts. Hence, it is essential to draw inspiration from jurisprudence being developed elsewhere. One such development relates to a decision rendered by the English High Court in December 2014 in Goldman Sachs International v...
Guide to Staff Loans under the Companies Act, 2013
[The following guest post is contributed by Munmi Phukon at Vinod Kothari & Co. The author can be contacted at [email protected]] One of the incogruities in the Companies Act, 2013 (Act, 2013) has been section 186 which subjected companies to certain threshold limits while giving loans to any person or other body corporate. However, the provisions were not explicit as to whether the term...
East India Company and Modern Corporations
William Dalrymple has an interesting piece in the Guardian that compares the East India Company (EIC) with modern corporations. He seeks to demonstrate that some of the factors that perpetuated the EIC’s dominance in the corporate and political world for several centuries are found in modern corporations as well, albeit in more measured terms. The kind of power that was wielded by the EIC is...
Regulating the Crowdfunding Intermediary: The Funding Portals
[The following guest post is contributed by Nikunj Agarwal, who is a 3rd year student pursuing the B. A. LL.B. (Hons.) course at RML National Law University, Lucknow. He can be contacted at [email protected]. In this post, the author considers the regulation of a specific type of intermediary involved in crowdfunding, viz. the funding portals. This follows a previous guest post on a related...
Is provisioning a necessary precursor to CSR spending?
[The following post is contributed by Prachi Narayan and Swati Rampuria at Vinod Kothari & Co. They can be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively] Introduction Corporate social responsibility (‘CSR’) was made mandatory by Companies Act, 2013 (‘Act’). Al though it has been a year since this concept has entered the Indian corporate regime, still there are...
Regulating Equity Crowdfunding in India
[The following guest post is contributed by Arjya Majumdar, who is an Assistant Professor at the Jindal Global Law School. He can be contacted at [email protected]] In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, small businesses found it increasingly difficult to raise funds. As a response, crowdfunding has emerged as a viable alternative for sourcing capital to support innovative...
DIPP Operationalizes Insurance FDI Reforms
The Government had earlier begun the process of enhancing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the insurance sector by increasing the investment cap from 26% to 49%. Given the political stalemate in the Parliament’s legislative process, the Government had initiated the reforms in December 2014 through the promulgation of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014. Subsequently, the Finance...
Definition of ‘Remuneration’ Under the Companies Act, 2013
[The following post is contributed by Nivedita Shankar, who is a Senior Associate at Vinod Kothari & Company. She can be contacted at [email protected]] As the financial year 2014-2015 approaches its end, companies are gearing up to meet the “many” requirements pertaining to preparation of board’s report in line with the new Companies Act, 2013 (‘Act, 2013’). Amongst the other...
Budget 2015: Foreign Investment
Given the economic orientation of the new government, one would expect that the Budget would make wholesale relaxations to the foreign investment policy and open up or further liberalise various sectors. But, anyone adopting that tack is bound to be disappointed as the Budget makes minimal changes regarding foreign investment. First, the vehicle of alternative investment funds receives a boost as...
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