Corporate Law

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ("MEITY") has published the draft National Data Governance Framework Policy ("NDGFP") on May 26, 2022 which aims to transform and modernize government data collection and management processes. The purpose of the NDGFP outlined in the draft is to enable an artificial intelligence and data led research and start-up ecosystem in India by creating a large repository of datasets. ......

On May 12, 2022, the Supreme Court considered the interplay between the Indian Contract Act, 1872 (“Contract Act”) and the Depositories Act, 1996 (“Depositories Act”) in relation to the pledge of shares and held that the Contract Act does not recognise the sale of the pledged goods by the pawnee to himself in the event of default of payment by the pawnor. ......

In recent years, ESG, or environmental, social and governance, investing has slowly and steadily made its way to becoming an investment strategy whereby investors put their money in companies that are looking to make the world a better place. ......

The Government of Delhi aims to create business leaders and entrepreneurs and make Delhi the “start-up destination of the world”. With this aspiration at the helm, on May 5, 2022, the Delhi Cabinet approved and announced the “Delhi Start-up Policy” (“Policy”). The Policy aims to provide an enabling ecosystem for an innovation-based economy to help Delhi become a global innovation hub. ......

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team ("CERT-In") is the national agency for incident response for cyber security and has been established under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act"). Its functions include the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents, providing and implementing emergency measures for handling any cyber security incidents, coordinating cyber incident response activities, and issuing guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and white papers with information relating to security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents. ......

Recently, the Ministry of Labour and Employment notified Infosys that a joint conversation on the implementation of the non-compete provision prohibiting employees from joining a competing technology business within six months of leaving Infosys has been scheduled. ......

Alternative Investment Funds ("AIF") in India are governed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Alternative Investment Regulations), 2012 ("AIF Regulations") and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India ("SEBI"). AIFs are investment funds that are established or incorporated in India that are privately pooled from foreign or Indian sources, in the form of trusts, companies, bodies corporate and limited liability partnerships. ......

The Company Law Committee published its third report ("Report") on April 13, 2022 which makes recommendations to the Government on changes to the Companies Act, 2013 ("Companies Act"), the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 ("LLP Act") and the rules framed thereunder. The amendments and new additions proposed in the Report aim to bring Indian company law in line with global practices and improve the ease of doing business in India. ......

On April 8, 2022, in the case of Noel Harper vs. Union of India , the Supreme Court upheld the validity of certain amendments made to the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (hereinafter referred to as the “FCRA”) which came into effect in September, 2020, clarifying that “the strict regime had become essential because of the past experience of abuse and misutilisation of foreign contribution”. ......