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There is no denial that the Government of India is taking all efforts to improve the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in the country, especially for MNCs. In this regard, it has rolled out a direct tax dispute resolution scheme titled ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ scheme (“VSV Scheme”) for taxpayers who have pending tax disputes at any appellate forum in India. The biggest benefit of this scheme is that if the taxpayer pays the disputed tax amount before the prescribed date, then, there is complete waiver from penal interest / penalty and potential prosecution.

On April 18, 2020, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), by way of press note 3 of 2020 (PN 3 of 2020), announced a critical change to the Consolidated Foreign Direct Investment Policy (FDI Policy).

The coming decades of antitrust markedly belong to e-commerce, leaving the antitrust regulators across the globe grappling with novel issues. Concerns like monopoly and duopoly, self-preferencing and leveraging, big data and network effects, dual pricing and deep discounting dominate their list. The unique characteristics of e-commerce mean the development of antitrust jurisprudence will remain in flux, and the recent spate of antitrust cases globally as well as in India evidences that.

Indian infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) have drawn investments from some of the largest global institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds. According to sources, since their introduction in India, InvITs and REITs have together raised more than $3.6 billion of capital. 

Striking a bargain for an exit with an unwilling minority shareholder is usually a challenge and does turn out to be a painstakingly arduous task if litigated by a reluctant minority stakeholder. In unlisted companies, the majority shareholder may be driven by a variety of reasons to squeeze-out the minority such as for obtaining greater operational flexibility (and smoother decision-making) or to limit information flow to a minority shareholder.

The Government released notifications on February 11, 2020 expanding the scope of regulation pertaining to ‘medical devices’. Historically, India has not had regulations on all ‘medical devices’ – certain categories of devices were regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 like ‘drugs’.  

In recent years there have been legislative reforms in India aimed at further simplifying inbound and outbound mergers and acquisitions (M&As). This article aims to summarise key aspects of M&As, including an overview of the main laws governing M&As, pricing guidelines, sectoral restrictions on investments, reporting requirements, and the key hurdles that potential Chinese investors should be aware of if they plan M&As in India.

On 5 March 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a moratorium on Yes Bank following unsuccessful attempts to raise additional capital to cover provisions for non-performing assets and a deterioration of its financial position. This was against the backdrop of the downgrading of Yes Bank’s credit rating and concerns over its corporate governance. The RBI has taken over Yes Bank’s board and imposed limits on withdrawals to protect the interests of depositors until 3 April 2020.

On March 4, the Supreme Court of India pronounced the verdict which was the culmination to two years’ worth of legal battle that ensued after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on April 6, 2018, restricted financial entities from providing services to cryptocurrency players. In its decision, the court has held that since the RBI was not able to provide evidence to prove the potential harm that could be suffered by the regulated entities due to the operation of the cryptocurrency players, the RBI’s ban was unjustified.