Blog Posts
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Recent RBI Policies
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] RBI/2008-09/ The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced some policies last week. The salient features are as follows: 1. External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) Policy – Liberalisation By a Circular dated January 2, 2009, the RBI dispensed with the requirement of all-in-cost ceilings on ECBs under the approval route, until June…
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Indian Acquisitions Abroad
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (In the following post, Rajvendra Sarswat, an Indian lawyer, examines the current trends in acquisition activity in India, with particular reference to overseas acquisitions by Indian companies) The news of an Indian company making any global acquisition or financing any project might have been surprising few years back, but not anymore.…
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Writing off Bad Debts and Tax Liability
[Posted by V. Niranjan] The treatment of bad debts has been a constant source of disagreement between financial institutions and the Tax Department. Banks typically argued that some advances were so unlikely to be recovered that they may justifiably be regarded as “sticky” advances, and that interest on these advances should not be treated as…
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NLSIR Symposium: Is Judicial Intervention in arbitration justified?
[Posted by Mihir Naniwadekar] The recent Symposium on Arbitration conducted by the National Law School of India Review saw the much-maligned interventionist role of the judiciary receiving support from leading practitioners, including Senior Advocates Arvind Datar and Gourab Banerji. Two of the most heavily criticized judicial interventions are (a) holding that the Chief Justice carries…
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Doha Legal Conference: 29-31 May, 2009
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Readers, particularly those in the Middle East, may wish to note an interesting event that is scheduled to be held in Doha between the 29th and 31st of May, 2009. The Qatar Law Forum has as its theme the Global Commitment to the Rule of Law. The three day conference will…
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JUDICIAL ENTRENCHMENT OF THE BHATIA INTERNATIONAL DECISION
[Posted by Venugopal Mahapatra] Recently, in the case of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board v. Videocon Power Ltd., a two-judge bench of the Madras High Court had occasion to deal with foreign arbitral awards, and the applicability of Part I of the Arbitration Act (which deals with domestic arbitration) to such awards. It may be recalled…
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Lock-in for Realty FDI
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Press Note 2 of 2005, which deals with foreign direct investment (FDI) in the real estate sector, imposes a three-year lock in foreign investments. It states: Original investment cannot be repatriated before a period of three years from completion of minimum capitalization. However, the investor may be permitted to exit earlier…
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Independent Directors in the Post-Satyam Era
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) appears to have given a clean chit to Satyam’s independent directors, as it was found that the board was not involved in the fraudulent conduct and that they were kept in the dark. Much has already been written about the difficulties of placing too much…