Insights
Transaction advisory
Notes on Indian law filed under Transaction advisory. The practice itself is described on its own page.
Buying an antiquity in India turns on the seller's licence, registration where notified and the bar on private export, and a defect in any of them can cost the buyer the object
On our reading of section 2(1)(a) of the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 (the Act), a work of art or craftsmanship becomes an antiquity once it has been in existence for not less than one hundred years, and a manuscript or record of scientific, historical, literary or aesthetic value becomes one at seventy-five years.
A Canadian pension fund in Indian infrastructure: the income-tax exemption, and the treaty rates where it does not apply
Schedule V of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (Table, Sl.
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.
An alternative investment fund may now offer co-investment through its own scheme, capped at three times the investor's contribution to the fund's investment in that company
Since 9 September 2025 a Category I or Category II alternative investment fund (AIF) may offer its accredited investors a co-investment in a portfolio company through a separate co-investment scheme of the fund itself, and no longer only through a co-investment portfolio manager.
Semicon 2.0: the gates are revenue, ownership and technology you already hold, not the capital you propose to spend
Semicon 2.0, notified on 31 August 2026, cut fiscal support for a silicon wafer fab to 40 per cent of eligible capital expenditure from the up to 50 per cent the first programme carried.
An NRI or OCI cardholder selling a flat in India and sending the money abroad: the rules from 1 April 2026
A non-resident Indian (NRI) or an overseas citizen of India (OCI) cardholder may sell immovable property in India to a person resident in India, and the Reserve Bank of India's directions under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) let an authorised dealer bank send the money abroad, but each exit route has its own cap and conditions.
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.
An FPI must disclose its owners down to natural persons if over half its Indian equity sits in one group or it holds over INR 50,000 crore
A foreign portfolio investor (FPI) that holds more than 50 per cent of its Indian equity assets under management (AUM) in one Indian corporate group, or more than INR 50,000 crore of Indian equity AUM alone or with its investor group, must give its designated depository participant (DDP) the name of every person with any ownership, economic interest or control in it, down to natural persons.
An heir living abroad can inherit property in India, but money leaves the country only up to USD 1 million a year without Reserve Bank approval
Under section 6(5) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), rule 24(c) of the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 and the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Master Direction on immovable property, a non-resident Indian (NRI) or overseas citizen of India (OCI) may inherit any immovable property in India, agricultural land included.
One Crore of Operating Profit: The SME IPO Gate and What It Costs to Clear It
Since 4 March 2025 an SME issuer cannot file a draft offer document unless it has earned operating profit of INR 1 crore from operations in two of the last three financial years.
What an Overseas Citizen of India cardholder may and may not do in India: rights, property, work and cancellation
An Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder is a foreign national, and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification S.O. 1050(E) of 4 March 2021, made under section 7B of the Citizenship Act, 1955, gives the cardholder a lifelong multiple-entry visa, parity with a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) on buying and selling immovable property other than agricultural land, a farm house or plantation property, and the rights of a foreigner in every other economic, financial and educational field.
Investing into India through Mauritius or Singapore in October 2026: the treaty tests, the GAAR and Tiger Global
Under the India-Mauritius and India-Singapore double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAAs) as amended in 2016, gains on Indian shares acquired on or after 1 April 2017 may be taxed in India, while shares acquired before that date stay taxable only in the investor's State of residence, subject in Singapore to a limitation of benefits clause.
Dutch holding companies investing into India: the MFN clause, the Nestle judgment and dividend withholding
On 19 October 2023 the Supreme Court of India held, in Assessing Officer (International Taxation) v. Nestle SA, that a most-favoured-nation (MFN) clause in a protocol to an Indian double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) does not operate by itself: the better rate given to a later treaty partner reaches residents of the first country only when the Central Government notifies it under section 90 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and the later partner must have belonged to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) when its treaty with India was entered into.
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-UAE Bilateral Investment Treaty protects for a UAE investor in India, and what it leaves out
The India-United Arab Emirates (UAE) Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), signed at Abu Dhabi on 13 February 2024 and in force from 31 August 2024, protects a UAE investor's enterprise-based investment in India against denial of justice, fundamental breach of due process, targeted discrimination, manifestly abusive treatment and uncompensated expropriation.
A power of attorney signed abroad to sell a flat in Bengaluru: the route, the stamp clock and the limit
A non-resident Indian (NRI) who signs a power of attorney abroad has two routes to a document Indian authorities will take: signature before an Indian consular officer, or signature before a foreign notary followed by an apostille under the Hague Convention of 1961.
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.
A Put Option Against a Resident: What Makes It Enforceable, and at What Price
A put option given by an Indian promoter to a foreign fund is enforceable in India, and has been since 2013, but it survives three separate tests rather than one.
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