Blog Posts
-
The Breakdown of the Doha Round
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (The following post has been contributed by Mihir Naniwadekar) Trade talks at the WTO over the Doha Round (now in its seventh year) broke down late last month in Geneva after intense negotiations failed to resolve a deadlock between India and China on the one hand and the US and EU…
-
Trading in Currency Futures permitted on Indian Stock Exchanges
[Posted by Gauri Manglik] The RBI and SEBI have jointly published guidelines for trading in currency futures on Indian stock exchanges yesterday. This would help further widen the derivative markets in India – While currently only trading in INR-USD futures is permitted, it may be further expanded at a later stage. A currency future is…
-
Employment Restrictions on PSU Executives: How Valid Are They?
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] One of our regular readers points us to this news report: “Top level public sector executives, including directors and chief executives, will not be able to join private firms after retirement or resignation unless they get go-ahead from the government. If they decide to join, they may have to pay damages…
-
When Can Directors be Held Responsible for Offences Committed by Their Companies?
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (The following post contributed by Gautam Bhatia, a III Year B.A., LL.B (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore deals with an important, but often controversial, issue of whether directors should be held criminally liable for offences by companies) The case of Maksud Saiyed v. State of…
-
Miscellaneous: Commodities Trading; Venture Capital, etc.
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] 1. Commodities Futures Trading A few papers and columns have recently appeared in this area. In a paper titled Futures Trading in Agricultural Commodities, Sandhya Srinivasan finds that the ban on futures trading on 4 agricultural commodities in May this year has not been effecting in bringing down the price of…
-
Stock Options for Nominee Directors
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Nominee directors on Indian corporate boards are a unique category of directors. They are usually are nominated by a bank, financial institution or other large investor to be a director on companies in which such nominating entities have invested. Sometimes, nominee directors also find themselves in an unenviable position – in…
-
A Recent Pronouncement on Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (Arbitration clauses have attained ubiquity in international commercial contracts, such as joint venture agreements, involving Indian companies. However, considering the short span of time that the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been in existence, these provisions have not been fully tested in practice. In this following post, Venugopal Mahapatra,…
-
China’s Anti-Monopoly Law
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] China’s new Anti-Monopoly Law took effect on August 1, 2008. Financial Times, in a news report published last week (July 28, 2008), has a brief comparison between the Indian and Chinese positions on antitrust. The report observes: “Tough antitrust laws that take effect in China this week and India later this…
-
Commercial Disparagement as a Tool in Corporate Battles
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (In the following post V. Niranjan, a B.A., LL.B (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and Editor, National Law School of India Review, analyses recent court rulings on the issue of ‘comparative’ advertising and commercial disparagement) The Delhi High Court very recently disposed of two cases…
-
Supreme Court on Fringe Benefit Taxes
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (In the following post Shantanu Naravane, a 4th Year B.A., LL.B (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, examines one of the first Supreme Court decisions on fringe benefit taxes) Ever since its introduction by the 2005 Finance Act, the concept of Fringe Benefit Taxes [“FBT”] has…