Insights
Contracts and procurement
Notes on Indian law filed under Contracts and procurement. The practice itself is described on its own page.
A road carrier in India answers for lost goods up to ten times the freight, unless a higher risk rate was agreed
A common carrier of goods by road in India is responsible under the Carriage by Road Act, 2007 for loss or damage in transit unless a cause listed in section 17 applies, but section 10(1) limits the liability to an amount fixed by rule, which rule 12(1) of the Carriage by Road Rules, 2011 makes, for total loss, ten times the freight, never above the value declared in the goods forwarding note.
A generator's change in law claim runs on three weeks' notice, a sixty day check by the Commission and an appeal within forty-five days
A generator that sells power under a power purchase agreement (PPA) and bears a higher cost after a change in law claims compensation under the agreement and, since 22 October 2021, under the Electricity (Timely Recovery of Costs due to Change in Law) Rules, 2021 (the Rules), which restore it to its earlier position.
A ceiling price for a scheduled drug is the average price to retailer plus a 16 per cent margin, and an overcharge is deposited with interest
A ceiling price for a scheduled formulation under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 (DPCO), made under section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, is the simple average of the prices to retailer of every brand and generic version with a market share of at least one per cent of total market turnover, plus a retailer margin of 16 per cent, revised each 1 April by the annual wholesale price index (WPI), which for the revision from 1 April 2026 was 0.64956 per cent, the index for 2025 over 2024.
A mining lease passes to a buyer under section 12A with State approval and no transfer charge, while royalty, District Mineral Foundation, Trust and premium payments continue
A mining lease in India goes to a person selected under section 10(4) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act): by auction under section 10B for a notified mineral such as iron ore, or by the routes in sections 10BA, 11, 11A, 11B and 11D, a reservation under section 17A or the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015.
Delay and variation claims under an Indian construction contract turn on section 55, the section 74 ceiling and a narrow challenge under section 34
An engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in India carries its delay and variation claims through the Indian Contract Act, 1872: section 55 decides whether late completion lets the owner end the contract or only claim compensation, and section 74 caps liquidated damages at the sum named, which on the Supreme Court's reading in Kailash Nath Associates v. Delhi Development Authority (9 January 2015) is payable in full only as a genuine pre-estimate of loss.
Reselling foreign software in India: payments for resale are not royalty, but goods and services tax and exclusivity terms still bind
In Engineering Analysis Centre of Excellence Private Limited v. Commissioner of Income Tax, decided on 2 March 2021, the Supreme Court held that a payment by an Indian distributor or end user to a foreign supplier for the resale or use of software under a distribution agreement or an end-user licence agreement is not royalty and gives rise to no income taxable in India, so no duty to deduct tax arose under section 195 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme: what the incentive rates, thresholds and recovery terms say
The Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on 8 April 2025 with an outlay of INR 22,919 crore including administrative expenses, pays turnover-linked incentive at 1 to 10 per cent of incremental sales, capex incentive at 25 per cent of eligible capital expenditure, or both together for the two selected bare components in segment C.
The India and United Kingdom trade agreement took effect on 15 July 2026, and no investment treaty came with it
The India and United Kingdom Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), signed on 24 July 2025, entered into force on 15 July 2026, together with the Double Contributions Convention (DCC) on social security.
What protects a Qatari investor in India: the 1999 treaty's ten-year tail, no new treaty yet, and the tax rules
No India-Qatar investment treaty is in force on the register of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), which records the 1999 treaty as terminated on 23 March 2017 and lists no later Qatar entry.
Under the SHANTI Act, private Indian companies may hold nuclear power licences, with operator liability capped by reactor size, from a date yet to be notified
The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025 (Act No. 39 of 2025), which received assent on 20 December 2025 and was published in the Gazette of India on 21 December 2025, repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, and, once in force, makes any company incorporated in India, alone or in a joint venture, eligible for a licence to build, own, operate and decommission a nuclear power plant, with no equity ceiling in the text.
What protects a Japanese investor in India today: the CEPA investment chapter and the tax treaty
The India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), signed at Tokyo on 16 February 2011, has its own investment chapter, Chapter 8, and the Department of Economic Affairs register of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) lists no India-Japan BIT, so India's 2016 and 2017 BIT terminations appear not to have touched it.
The scheme that replaced FAME pays once a vehicle is sold, and the battery rules charge for it again two years later
PM E-DRIVE, the scheme that followed FAME-II and subsumed EMPS-2024, now runs to 31 March 2028 on an outlay raised to INR 11,900 crore, and the last date for a claim under any component is 31 December 2027.
An AI vendor's indemnity moves the money, not the responsibility: contracts, diligence and disclosure
Contracts for AI tools are usually drafted as if a warranty and an indemnity settle who answers for the tool.
India's export control list now names chip manufacturing tools, and shipping or re-exporting them needs a licence
India's export control list for dual use items, the Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) list, was revised by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on 23 September 2025, to take effect 30 days after issue.
India's carbon market now sets plant-level targets, and a shortfall left uncovered costs twice what a certificate trades for
From 8 October 2025, the Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules, 2025 have given 282 named plants in aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper a binding emission intensity target for 2025-26 and 2026-27.
There is no AI statute in India, and the one AI rule that binds you today is about labels
A business buying or building AI in India is usually told it faces a new compliance regime.
Revised Schedule M gave smaller drug makers one extension, and it ran out on 31 December 2025
Every manufacturer licensed under rule 74, 76 or 78 of the Drugs Rules, 1945 has been bound by the revised Schedule M since 31 December 2025 at the latest: since 28 June 2024 above INR 250 crore, and since 28 December 2024 for a smaller manufacturer that did not file Form A.
The DPDP Rules are notified, and almost nothing in them binds until 13 May 2027
The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 were notified on 13 November 2025 as G.S.R. 846(E).
Digital lending is now one instrument, and a default loss guarantee cannot exceed five per cent of what the portfolio disbursed
The Reserve Bank of India (Digital Lending) Directions, 2025 took three circulars written over five years and replaced them with one, and in doing so moved the default loss guarantee out of a standalone 2023 circular and into a chapter of the regime it always belonged to.
The Defence Procurement Manual 2025 halves the cap on liquidated damages until the inexcusable delay passes a quarter of the total delivery period
The Defence Procurement Manual 2025 came into force on 1 November 2025 for revenue procurement by the Ministry of Defence and the Services.
The India-EFTA agreement's USD 100 billion investment objective is a promotion duty, not investment protection
The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) between India and the four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, was signed on 10 March 2024 and entered into force on 1 October 2025.
What the India-Singapore CECA investment chapter protects for a Singapore investor, and what it leaves out
The investment chapter of the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), signed at New Delhi on 29 June 2005 and in force from 1 August 2005, gives a Singapore investor in India national treatment, protection against expropriation without prompt, adequate and effective compensation, free transfer of returns, and a right to take most disputes to arbitration after six months of consultations.
By sector
By practice
By author