Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently come to power for a third term and this time with a coalition government. The union budget 2024-25 announced on 23 July 2024 proposes multiple changes aimed towards corporations, small businesses and MSMEs. Attracting more foreign capital to the Indian market, corporate tax on foreign companies has been reduced from 40% to 35%. An increase in tax, however, has been proposed for transactions tax on futures transactions to 0.02% and options of securities to 0.1%. A newer development is seen for income received on the buyback of shares to now be taxed. An ..read more

The Supreme Court has delivered a significant judgment, in Dani Wooltex Corporation & Ors v Sheil Properties & Anr, with far-reaching implications for the termination of arbitration proceedings in India. The case revolves around the validity of a termination of arbitral proceedings passed by an arbitral tribunal under section 32(2)(c) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The dispute began when appellant Dani Wooltex acquired land in Mumbai to be developed by Sheil Properties under a development agreement. A second respondent, Marico Industries, was to purchase the other half ..read more

The Supreme Court’s judgment, in Bar of Indian Lawyers v DK Gandhi PS National Institute of Communicable Diseases and Anr, 2024, rules that a service hired or availed of an advocate is a service under “a contract of personal service” and therefore falls within the exclusionary part of the definition of “service” under section 2(42) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The court also considered whether the legislature ever intended to include professions or service by professionals under the act. It held that while the act was to provide better protection of consumer interests against exploita ..read more

The Supreme Court has laid down guidelines for special courts dealing with complaints filed by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The issue arose in Tarsem Lal v Directorate of Enforcement, Jalandhar Zonal Office, where the appellant was denied anticipatory bail. The appellant was never arrested after registration of the enforcement case information report by the directorate. The directorate’s complaint was filed for an offence punishable under section 4 of the laundering act. The appellant did not appear before the special court after a summon ..read more

Withers Khattarwong, the Singapore outfit of UK-based Withers, has strengthened its real estate team in Asia with the addition of new partner Chau Hwei Lee from Lion City firm Shook Lin & Bok. Jeremy Wakeham, CEO of Withers’ business division, said: “There are few real estate lawyers in Singapore with Chau Hwei’s depth of experience, and we’re delighted he is joining the firm to support our clients with their real estate investment needs and to welcome his clients to the firm.” Lee, which has joined Withers along with associate Cheryl Lee from Shook Lin & Bok, has a legal career spanni ..read more

Jingtian & Gongcheng has hired partner Sun Yifei and five lawyers to the Beijing office, hoping the new additions will strengthen the firm’s construction practice. Sun has nearly 20 years of experience, specialising in construction, public-private partnerships and insurance. His team members have extensive experience in advising insurance, trust and state-owned construction companies, such as China Construction Engineering Group, China State Construction Engineering Corporation and China National Nuclear Corporation. They have also represented clients in many dispute cases accepted by the ..read more

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett have advised on a series of transactions in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector, involving Hitachi Global Life Solutions, Johnson Controls International and Bosch with a combined value of USD8.1 billion. Freshfields acted as the international and Japanese counsel for Hitachi, guiding the company through the sale of its 40% stake in Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning Holding (JCH) to German technology and services provider Bosch. This USD1.4 billion transaction is part of a larger restructuring in w ..read more

The 2024 World Economic Forum report reveals that climate-related dangers form five out of the top 10 global financial risks. Private equity investors increasingly evaluate climate-related financial risks (CRFR) when making investment decisions. There is therefore a growing need for standardised and comparable data across industries and companies. Vandana Pai Partner and Head of the Investment Funds Practice Bharucha & Partners The draft standard CRFR disclosure framework for regulated entities (RE) (guidelines) issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in February 2024 seeks to address th ..read more

The News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) recently brought digital news and media publishers under the authority of its self-regulatory body, the News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA). In June 2024, the NBDA issued a press release announcing amendments to the News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Regulations (regulations). These are some of the key changes. Ashima Obhan Senior Partner Obhan & Associates New definitions are included. Digital news media means digitised news content that can be transmitted over the internet or computer networks and inclu ..read more

Linklaters has added Christine Xu and Oliver Zhong in a bid to drive the development of the new economy sector across greater China and Asia. Xu is a partner and head of greater China enterprise content management, and Zhong is special senior adviser and new economy team leader for greater China. Formerly a partner at Clifford Chance, Xu brings two counsels, Queenie Tong and Samson Chan, as part of her move to Linklaters. Zhong was a partner at Sidley Austin before joining Linklaters. Xu specialises in equity capital markets with a focus on industries such as technology, media, healthcare, lif ..read more