The 10 most trusted business and commercial law solution providers

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www.insightssuccess.in MARCH 2018

Finance Talk Security Transaction Tax : Payable on the Value of Security

The

10

Most

Trusted Business &

Commercial Law Solution Providers

Peaks & Valleys Trends that are Driving e-Commerce in India

Evolution Fostering Twists and Turns of NBFCs

Vineet Aneja Founding Partner & Managing Partner

Clasis Law Leading the Way in Providing Specialized and Cutting Edge Legal Services

Editorial

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ndia is one of the fastest emerging economies in the world. As it endures to prosper, there is the quick upsurge in commercial transactions in the marketplace. Similarly, as a result of this, some of the commercial disputes in India are also amplified. Corporate firms comprehend that howsoever well the intentions; there is no escape from Corporate Lawsuit.

There is also a need to know that the finest method to deal with such issues is to decrease the assets that are involved in resolving such differences.

Commercial law governs the wide-ranging ranges of business, commerce, and consumer transactions. It permits, so far as it can, person or person to do business in the way they want and not necessitate them to stick to procedures that they may think to be obsolete.

Business and Commercial Law: Renovating Businesses Rightfully

Lack of understanding of Commercial Law Practices in this emerging area may entrap an organization in unnecessary legal hurdles, which may also prove to be very expensive in terms of finances, time and lost business opportunities. Though, choosing the proper framework for your business is essential to its future success.

Therefore, companies are now seeking for dedicated law firms who have specialized in International Sales, Commercial Agency, Confidentiality, Distributorship, Contracting, Model Subcontract, Technology Transfer and Trademark Licensing with top-notch solutions.

A Qualified Lawyer in commercial law can discuss with you your goals, your expectations, your resources, your business model, your level of liability and other factors. By listening and reviewing your needs, they help you determine what type of framework would be best for you. Options include the S corporation, C Corporation, LLC, PLLC, and various other entities, all of which come with different advantages, disadvantages and tax ramifications.

The Business & commercial sector provides the widest range of opportunities to the lawyers, probably more than any other field of law. It requires a high degree of specialization and therefore, the choice regarding the particular area of commercial law is necessary. Nonetheless, it is also one of the most dynamic fields and thus, provides new and upcoming areas to explore time and again.

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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Shraddha Deshpande Managing Editor Sachin Bhandare Co-Editors Shweta Priyadarshani Poulami Das Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Shweta Shinde Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Asha, Priyanka, Sapana Visualiser Savita Pandav Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executives Joan, Tejaswini, Ashwini, Meera Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Vivek Database Management Prashant Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil sales@insightssuccess.com

March, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. th

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CONTENTS ARTICLES

8

Evolution Fostering Twists and Turns of NBFCs

COVER STORY

Clasis Law:

36

22

Finance Talk

Security Transaction Tax: Payable on the Value of Security

26

Peaks & Valleys Trends that are Driving e-commerce in India

Leading the Way in Providing Specialized and Cutting Edge Legal Services

Law Movements Cxo Standpoint As Customers, Entrepreneurs and Technologies Evolve

Prevention of Sexual Harassment [PoSH] in 2018 – A new dawn

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20 Business Things EASE OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA

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Interview with Insights Success Azoth Analytics: Delivering the Customized Industry Market Research Services for Business

16 24 Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas: Delivering Exceptional Legal Services for over 100 years

28 LAWFORU: A Promising Legal Advisor

34 LawRex: Offering Realistic and Cost-effective Legal Consultancy and Advisory Services and Practical Legal Solutions

40 S. Jalan & Company: A Full-service Law Firm Providing Services at Par with International Standard and Requirements

Substantial Assurance of Commercial Law in the Future of Business

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ommercial law relates to those branches of the law that deal with or affect commercial and business activities. These zones largely include contract law, agency law, and the law of sales, the law of negotiable instruments and labor law. Much of modern commercial law, particularly as it relates to the law of sales, negotiable instruments and contract negotiation, traces back to the trade customs that were routinely used by merchants and traders from the middle Ages to resolve commercial disputes. These trade customs were later recognized by merchant courts, which were then assimilated into Indian common law traditions.

In this issue of “The 10 Most Trusted Business and Commercial Law Solution Providers,” we have ornamented some of the noticeable organizations, who have achieved trademark by providing Top- notch Business & Commercial Law solutions and are well prepared for continuing the Business & Commercial Law development sectors’ future.

Our magazine’s journey starts with Cover story, Clasis Law, a highly professional and process driven firm that has the necessary systems in place to provide hassle free services to the clients. Their clients range from Fortune 500 companies to SME businesses.

We have encompassed, one of the renowned brands, LawRex, as the leading Legal Firm, provides efficient, costeffective and prompt legal consultancy and advisory services to their clients, LAWFORU, a legal advisory firm, for providing a wide range of legal services ranging from name change, divorce cases, civil cases, criminal cases, and many more. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, an authorized advisor, which has pre-eminence, experience and reputation of almost a century has been unparalleled in the Indian legal fraternity and S. Jalan & Co., as a fullservice law firm advising and strategizing commercial transactions as well as contests commercial litigation and arbitrations on behalf of its diverse clientele. Also, Gaggar & Co., Vertices Partners, Samvād Partners, IndusLaw and SB Partners are included.

We have interviewed, Matloob Hasan, Research Director from Azoth Analytics who has given some insightful answers highlighting the influences made by his company to take Market research assets to an innovative level.

We have also covered CXO’s on, “Prevention of Sexual Harassment [PoSH] in 2018 – A new dawn” by Vishal Kedia, Founder Director of Complykaro Services Pvt. Ltd. So, do flip the pages of our magazine to uncover the prominent Business and Commercial Law inspirations.

Cover Story

Clasis Law Leading the Way in Providing Specialized and Cutting Edge Legal Services

“As a full-service Indian law firm, we truly believe in our Vision, Scope, Experience and Capability”

Vineet Aneja Founding Partner & Managing Partner

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wareness and importance about India’s legal industry continue to hold surprising sway among lawyers and clients, both inside and outside the country.

Expertise is flourishing in new practice areas such as competition law, environmental law, international trade law, outbound foreign direct investment, including restructuring and insolvency. A growing count of firms is also exploring alternative pricing models, heralding a not-too-distant day when alternate pricing arrangements may be preferred as against the hourly billing model. Many large and mid-sized law firms are aiming to form a pan-India presence, adding more practices and expanding their reach by acquiring smaller firms. Thanks to the widespread availability of high-quality and ambitious legal professionals the industry has seen many partners leave existing firms to start their own enterprise.

This remarkable time of growth and change marks the onset of a new age for the Indian legal industry. The new breed of mid-sized and boutique law firms are looking to increase revenues and control costs by creating leaner teams and efficient billing structures.

Amongst the mid-sized firms, the one that is known for its very quick and effective service is Clasis Law, a leading name in the Indian legal market. With a full-service presence in New Delhi and Mumbai, they provide advice on matters relating to Indian law and jurisdiction. Their vision, scope, experience and capability have built the confidence in clients to approach them for assistance in relation to other jurisdictions as well.

Clasis Law is recognized as a highly professional and process driven firm that has the necessary systems in place to provide hassle free services to the clients. Their clients range from Fortune 500 companies to SMEs and small businesses. The firm assists large MNCs and international SMEs that

“Fortune favours the brave!” choose India as their preferred investment destination. The firm’s expert team of lawyers ensure that each client receives their best attention along with the most tenable and cost-effective legal advice.

An Illustrious Persona - Vineet Aneja, Founding Partner & Managing Partner of Clasis Law. Vineet heads the pan India operations of the firm and the firm’s corporate practice. His practice includes advising on mergers and acquisitions, joint venture, regulatory, employment, retail, hospitality, compliance and audit and financing. Vineet has a rich experience of working with both Indian and foreign companies, as well as with government authorities. While his experience is vast in relation to transactions and advisory in India, Vineet has advised clients in other jurisdictions including Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Middle East and Pakistan.

Client feedback over the years has highlighted the value his advice has added to their transactions.

“Our objective is to collaborate with our clients and become a partner in their business decisions”.

Words of Inspiration “There is no substitute for hard work.

I started my professional journey as a lawyer from the proverbial bottom of the pyramid and today after having been on the top for a long time, I see myself working as hard as when I started, in fact more. To me the greatest factor for success is hard work and rigour. No amount of add-ons can ever paper over a shoddy job done due to lack of hard work and diligence. The other most important factor is having an impeccable professional integrity.

When a client knows that its lawyer’s professional integrity and ethics are unassailable that is when they reward you with their trust and where there is trust there is no dearth of good work.”

Vineet asserts.

“Fortune favours the brave!” is the prime faith of Clasis Law. They started small but had larger aspirations, they took chances, risked many things, took a beating, kept their head above water, found the ground beneath their feet, rose again and ultimately everything fell in the right place. The Firm has always punched above its weight and that has spelled success for them.

Effective and Powerful Solutions Recognized for its robust corporate practice, Clasis Law has wide-ranging experience in M&A transactions and offers end-to-end transaction management from deal structuring, negotiating, and documentation to assisting in closing of the transaction.

The scope of their corporate and M&A advisory goes beyond the resolution of typical legal problems. Their objective is to collaborate with their clients and become a partner in their business decisions.

In addition to transaction advisory, the firm also provides services like legal due diligence, corporate and compliance audits, compliance management and corporate governance matters. Clasis Law’s secretarial and compliance services work to unburden the clients from corporate compliances

Our expert team of lawyers ensure that each client receives

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our best attention and is provided with the most tenable and cost-effective legal advice

so that they are free to focus on their business.

On the litigation side, Clasis Law’s dispute resolution team has advised and represented clients on a wide array of commercial litigation transactions, insolvency and bankruptcy related disputes, domestic and international arbitrations, enforcement of foreign decrees and foreign arbitral awards, debt recovery matters, international debt issues, employment disputes, infringement of trademarks and passing off disputes, winding up of companies, marine and international trade disputes, indirect tax related disputes, insurance and reinsurance claims, infrastructure disputes, unfair trade practice and consumer complaints etc. Their distinctive approach helps them offer practical and technically sound litigation strategies that keep their clients’ best interest in mind.

The firm’s other sector specific teams and practice verticals like Employment, compliment their corporate practice. Employment Law is

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Our sound commercial understanding helps us to provide a holistic advice to our clients that is in line with their business objectives. one of Clasis Law’s core practice areas and the firm’s extensive experience includes advising on HR policies and procedures, employee redundancies and employee transfer transactions, employment contracts, compliance audits and risk advisory, conducting employee training and awareness workshops, as well as, advising on a range of contentious issues such as hostile terminations, enforcement of restrictive covenants, sexual harassment cases and employee disputes.

Clasis Law services a range of practice areas including corporate and commercial, aviation & aerospace, banking & finance, insurance, retail, hospitality, infrastructure, real estate, intellectual property, employment law, competition, compliance & auditing, shipping & international trade law, TMT, litigation & dispute resolution. The firm acts for a diverse Indian and international client base across a number of sectors.

Distinctive Strategy- Being Available for the Clients, at any Hour In the practice of law the key strategy that holds one in good stead is that of consistently delivering results for their clients. At Clasis Law, they meticulously ensure that every client notwithstanding the scale or size gets the pride of place and is provided with their best possible service at all times. They have worked hard to retain long-standing clients who have stayed with them long enough despite of inducements from the market, to become their flagship clients.

Clasis Law’s lawyers are well-trained to ensure that a client’s interface with the law firm, be it understanding of the issue at hand, providing legal remedies, on-time and effective deliverables, credible time-recording, quick response time and invoicing is so seamless that it augments the overall service experience which greatly helps in client retention. The firm understands the importance of making themselves available to their clients when they need them,

which is the reason why Clasis Law is regarded as one of the most responsive law firms with the quickest turnaround times. The journey to convert a regular client to a longstanding client is not an easy one for it requires immense investment of time and effort in addition to excellent lawyering skills. Further, keeping in view the increased pressures on in-house legal departments to save on legal fee, Clasis Law offer their clients, flexible fee structures so that they could choose the one that is most suitable for their requirement.

Some Recent Notable Recognition of the Firm: · Clasis Law is ranked amongst the Top 40 Indian Law Firms by RSG Consulting Rankings 2017. · Vineet Aneja is recognized as one of India's most Trusted Corporate Lawyer by Indian Corporate Counsel Association, 2017.

Future Outlook Clasis Law is ready for all challenges that the markets may throw up. They know that the Indian legal market is constantly evolving with global firms looking to have a share in the pie. With their experience of working closely with international law firms over the years, they are at home with the globally accepted systems and procedures hence are ready to evaluate opportunities that the future may offer.

The Firm’s members are all seasoned lawyers in their respective fields and enjoy tremendous confidence from the clients. The firm is presently looking to grow and consolidate existing practice areas as well as add newer verticals. They are working closely with many international firms globally and would look to expand the share of work that is referred to the firm by their friends in other jurisdictions. Clasis Law is working to expand its geographic footprints and some developments may be expected by the end of the next fiscal.

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Company Name

Management

Brief

Clasis Law www.clasislaw.com

Vineet Aneja Founding Partner & Managing Partner

Clasis Law is a highly successful and well recognized brand in the Indian legal market.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas www.cyrilshroff.com

Cyril Suresh Shroff Managing Director

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas was founded in May 2015 to continue the legacy of the 100-year old Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., whose pre-eminence, experience and reputation of almost a century has been unparalleled in the Indian legal fraternity.

Gaggar & Co. www.gaggarpartners.com

Vaibhav Gaggar Managing Partner

Gaggar & Partners is a full-service law Firm, with its principal office in New Delhi. The Firm was established with an aim to provide one –stop solution to its clients, delivering comprehensive, pragmatic and quality legal services.

IndusLaw www.induslaw.com

Anupam Prasad Partner

IndusLaw specialises in syndicated loan documentation, secured and unsecured debt transactions and cross-border finance matters.

Lawforu www.lawforu.com

Sai Krishna Azad Founder

LAWFORU is a legal advisory firm providing a wide range of legal services ranging from name change, divorce cases, civil cases, criminal cases, and many more.

LawRex WWW.LAWREX.IN

Advocate Ashok Kr Anchalia, CA Chandan Anchalia, Advocate Darpan Anchalia

LawRex, the leading Legal Firm, provides efficient, costeffective and prompt legal consultancy and advisory services to their clients.

S Jalan & Company www.sjalanco.com

Sourav Ghosh Equity Partner

S. Jalan & Co. is a full-service law firm advising and strategizing commercial transactions as well as contests commercial litigation and arbitrations on behalf of its diverse clientele.

Samvād Partners www.samvadpartners.com

Shanu Jain Partner

Samvād Partners was formed by a merger of Narasappa, Doraswamy & Raja and V Chambers of Law in April 2013, creating a single, “very strong” full-service brand.

SB Partners www.sbpartners.org

Samir Bedi Managing Partner

SB Partners (formerly KSB Partners) is a full service corporate law firm having offices in Gurugram and Mumbai in India. The firm has a reputation for its work in diverse industry segments and practice areas including commercial laws, corporate finance, regulatory & general corporate advisory work.

Vertices Partners www.verticespartners.com

Vinayak Burman Founder Partner

Vertices Partners a boutique law firm which specializes in delivering with excellence.

Azoth Analytics: Delivering the Customized Industry Market Research Services for Business

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uccessful businesses have extensive knowledge of their customers and their competitors.

The level of complexity used in your market research campaign is up to you, as market research can cover a broad spectrum of activities. You can undertake simple activities that can be done on your own, such as creating a short customer satisfaction questionnaire or studying demographic data for your area, or undertake complex ones that require assistance from a professional market research firm. Regardless of the size of your market research budget, the time you have available or your level of experience, some form of market research is possible and it can help you to improve your business decisions.

In an interview with Insights Success, Matloob Hasan, Research Director at Azoth Analytics has given some insightful answers highlighting the influences made by his company to take Market research assets to an innovative level. · Kindly tell us about your company.

Azoth Analytics is a business research and analytics company that creates indepth research reports and provides customized research solutions and consultancy services. The verticals in which Azoth Analytics specializes include healthcare and pharmaceutical, oil and gas, retail, chemicals,

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automotive, FMCG, food & beverages and technology.

The company was established in October 2015 and the basic idea behind the formation of the company was to create an entity that can work closely with the clients to meet their specific research requirements. And over the last two and a half years, we have been able to create certain key „client accounts‟ who value our expertise.

This has been made possible because of our dedicated employees and the strategic advices and recommendations of our directors, Mr. Subhodeep Sen and Mr. Sanjeev Srivastava. · What kind of services and solutions does your company provide that makes you stand out from the competitors?

As mentioned earlier, we are focused on two types of services – syndicated or off the-shelf reports and customized research services. The syndicated reports are targeted towards customers who need immediate solutions or business insights. This “immediate requirement” could be because of the need of knowledge on an immediate basis about their competitors, suppliers or the overall dynamics of the industry in which they are operating. The gaps in the syndicated reports are fulfilled by our customized research solutions, which are tailor-made and caters to the specific research requirements. This

part of research is time-driven, very exhaustive in nature, needs deeper insights and hence requires higher budgets from the clients.

How we stand out in the crowd of competitors? This is an interesting question. There are two aspects to it.

One, the volume of work is increasing in the field of research and analytics and therefore, there is work for every analyst firm that has the required skill sets and capabilities. Two, most analytics firms work on the premise of creating data points on very superficial level banking mostly on the secondary sources of information. We have positioned ourselves in a very short period of time, as a firm that makes the data and statistics speak about the industry or the sector. And this has been made possible because of the fact that we believe in interacting with the people who are actually operating in that particular industry or the sector.

We interact with industry experts (people from associations and companies) and we get the insights from them which are real-time and highly updated. · What are the current trends followed by the Business and Commercial Law companies?

The business research and analytics space (in which Azoth Analytics operate) used to be highly unorganized around a decade ago with many small

March 2018|

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Interview With Insights Success

Matloob Hasan

Research Director

Azoth Analytics

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March 2018|

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We provide our clients in-depth reports by recording, interpreting and analyzing information through primary and secondary research

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companies popping up like mushrooms that grow and spread all over in humid and moist places. But like every industry, it has begun to take shape over the years and moving over to more organized and structure space.

And with it, the companies are more focused towards certain niche segments and specific client base. And as a result, we are witnessing research and analytics companies positioning themselves in specific verticals like Healthcare, Power, and Automotive etc.

Also, companies are becoming more client specific, which means focused on certain client base like the government or operating as vendors of outsourced work from big consulting firms like KPMG, Deloitte, Accenture, Ronald Berger, Ernst & Young and PwC. Another trend that is noteworthy and being followed by a select few business research and analytics firms is leveraging their client base and expanding their reach to the “conference industry”, wherein highly skilled subject experts and people from the same industry are brought in one platform to share knowledge and expertise. · Briefly, tell us about the Managing Director of the company.

I am associated with the business research and analytics industry since 2003 when I joined RocSearch, a company promoted by UK-based entrepreneurs who wanted to create a “knowledge processing centre” in India. After learning the fundamentals of research and analytics, I ventured into creating a small boutique firm

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called Koncept Analytics, with two of my colleagues. The firm specialized in creating syndicated reports and later on we felt the need of providing more customized research and advisory solutions. And then Azoth Analytics was built in 2015. An Insan School Kishanganj alumni, studied economics from AMU, Aligarh, MBA from Birla Institute of Management Technology, New Delhi, I am back to learning, which I love most, as I am enrolled in the PhD programme of Faculty of Management Studies, AMU. The title of my research is “Factors Affecting InFlight Service Quality, Passenger Satisfaction and Re-Flying Intention: An Empirical Study”. · Kindly brief us about the unique strategies that you use in your company.

We are striving to create a place for ourselves by working on projects which requires us to work on very niche areas of an industry and to deliver in tighter deadlines. This specialty has shaped our strategy to associate with top consulting firms like Deloitte and Roland Berger, who outsource a certain part of their ongoing projects. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, we explore the markets at a very in-depth level before giving our recommendations. · How do you work on your longterm relationship with your clients?

After the completion of a project, we take feedback from our clients related to the quality of deliverables, the timelines and meeting the project scope. This is the best method to retain a customer base. But for all practical

purposes, loyalty comes from deeper customer satisfaction. · Kindly brief us about the most satisfactory experience with a client.

What kind of game-changing services have you provided them?

Among the many projects, one outstanding project for which we received tremendous applause from our client was related to the analysis of Engineered Quartz market of the five US regions for different patterns and pricing bands. We believe the complete assessment through primary interviews at the manufacturer, distributors and retailers level helped us to provide the insights that the client expected. · What are the values and factors that you attribute your success to?

Also, suggest the one quote which adorns your company very well.

A disciplined workforce who values the company as much as you do is the core of any services firm. And I firmly believe the company’s success lies in its employee’s dedication towards work and quest for knowledge. “We like to get into the skin of things and this is what our clients expect from us”… · What are the future advancements of your company and how well equipped are you?

Becoming a vertical specialist will be the key direction for the company and this will require specific skills and knowledge. We are very much focused in this direction.

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CXO Standpoint

As Customers, Entrepreneurs and Technologies Evolve

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echnology companies have been and are at the forefront of devising unconventional and innovative ways of meeting the demands of today’s savvy customer.

Here are some thoughts on the latest technology industry trends and growth opportunities in today’s market environment.

Where is the growth?

For much of the last few decades, the tech story has focused on the consumer markets and that will continue. However, as enterprises around the world look to facilitate their own transformations through technology, the opportunities for tech companies have broadened considerably.

OPEX optimization and the race for competitive advantage have led businesses everywhere to adopt the new and the cutting edge. Technologies continue to evolve as their power and speed increase while the cost of delivering them goes down.

Robotics, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing and Artificial intelligence are opening up totally novel avenues.

Cognitive technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision and speech and pattern recognition present vast areas of application and will see exponential rates of adoption in the times to come.

Blockchain and the distributed ledger technology has significant implications not only for the financial services industry but for any company that manages large amounts of data

moving towards usage based consumption – entrenched technology players will have to transform their business models to keep up with this change Cyber security products and services will find increased relevance and new markets.

How should tech companies evolve?

One of the more important trends from the perspective of manufacturers of technology is the flexible pricing or pay as you go model. This trend began with software as a service (SaaS) companies that allowed customers to move away from buying hardware and software and instead pay for computer processing and storage on a pay as you go basis.

Gartner estimates that by 2020, 80% of software vendors would have moved to this model.

While smaller technology manufacturers will find this shift to reduce their sales cycles, larger organizations will have much maneuvering to do.

Changes in regulations in geographies such as the US, will need the Indian technology ecosystem to transition from a service based ecosystem to a product based ecosystem.

Development of new products and tackling of new problems will lead to increased product investments and liquidity events – India is therefore likely to see a thriving venture capital ecosystem in the times to come.

The rise of Internet penetration in India and constant growth in Internet commerce will provide vast grounds of expansion to homegrown startups and significant value creation can be expected in the next few years.

From long term licenses and contracts, enterprises are

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March 2018|

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About Author Ash Narain is the Founder of multiple enterprise nancial technology companies – including Marquee Equity, BankerBay and ZoukTech. He presently serves as CEO of Marquee Equity which is the most efcient way for companies across the world to raise institutional capital.

Marquee is used by investment banks and emerging companies to build direct relationships with investors within a short time period. More information on Marquee Equity – www.marquee-equity.com. Connect with Ash Narain on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/ashnarain

Partnering to Build The digital enablement of enterprises is a complex process and the tech solutions needed by companies don’t come neatly bundled out of the box. Rather, they are a combination of technologies and knowledge bases. The complexity involved in designing today’s technology platforms requires deep expertise in a wide array of areas.

This is causing a historic wave of collaboration between industries and companies that operate within them.

An example of companies working together is the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence – which includes companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook.

The partnership aims to create a platform to provide thought leadership in order to advance understanding of AI technologies.

Companies that are open and adept to this form of learning will be able to find a broader network of opportunities for their products and services.

Conclusion

Ash Narain Founder

focused on the consumer markets – with big changes in commerce, payments, travel, sharing and networking. These spaces will continue to grow and create value.

Globally, there is a tectonic shift in how enterprises, large and small, organize their processes, internal and external.

These processes are increasingly going to be tech driven.

Significant opportunities shall be available to new innovators in the enterprise space.

Enterprises are increasingly deciding in favour of pay as you go models – and their technology vendors will have to restructure their businesses to adopt to this shift Cognitive technologies will create new avenues of exponential growth.

Product investments will thrive in markets like India as the ecosystem transforms from a service based one to a product driven one.

The next wave of value creators will seize the opportunity to make a dent in the enterprise space by collaborating with one another to bring inter-industry expertise to their products and services.

The last few waves of technology driven change has been

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Finance Talk

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ntroduced in the Finance Act 2004, Security Transaction Tax is a tax being imposed on all transactions such as sale/purchase transactions. This security transaction is applied on the stock exchanges at rates prescribed by the Central Government from time to time. It is an indirect tax which was made to lower the tax on short-term capital gains and to make the long-term capital gains released from the levy of any tax. Among all the other countries, India has the highest taxes in stock markets. STT is the largest fee paid by traders with discount stock brokers. In some cases, it’s over 100 times more than the brokerage itself.

Taxation of profit or loss from securities transactions depends on the activity of purchasing and selling of shares/derivatives which is classified as an investment activity or business activity. Treatment of STT depends upon whether the pay from these securities transactions should include in the ‘Profits and Gains of Business’ or under “Income from Capital Gains”.

An independent study by Securities and Exchange Board of India suggested STT on protective-put and hedged-call positions that should be reduced to give a boost to the market. Many traders would not disclose profits made in the equity market and sidestepped tax on capital gains. But this system is changed in the last 10 years with the introduction of STT. The tax is collected by the broker along with other transaction charges such as stamp duty and exchange house levy and passed on to the Centre.

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March 2018|

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Long and Short Term Capital Gain To neutralize some of the negative impacts, long-term capital gains tax on equities were removed and short-term capital gains tax reduced to 10 percent. Currently, a delivery trade in cash market attracts STT of 0.1 percent on traded turnover levied both at the time of purchase and sale of shares. Gain or lose is subject to Short-Term Capital Gains or Long Term Capital Gains tax depending upon the period of holding, i.e., if the holding period is equal to or greater than one year, gains is classified as LTCG and if the holding period is less than one year, gains is classified as STCG. STT of 0.025 percent on intra-day trades is not much but for a day trader, it is a certain increase in cost. STT can form 40-50 percent of the total transaction cost on equities. Other transaction charges include brokerage (of 0.01-0.03 percent on intraday), stamp duty (0.002 percent in Mumbai), exchange levy (NSE’s is 0.00325 percent) and service tax.

STT on Mutual Funds Every sale or purchase of securities which are listed on the Indian stock exchange is imposed with STT. This would include shares, derivatives or equity-oriented mutual fund units. The rate of tax that is deducted is determined by the central government, and it varies with different types of transactions and securities. Securities transaction tax is deducted from equity mutual fund units at the time of redemption, when switched to other schemes, a sale of units and not on their purchase. STT is not applicable on off-market transactions.

Who deducts the STT? STT is a neat, efficient and easy-to-administer tax that virtually eliminates tax avoidance. Asset management company and brokerage houses deduct STT at source while executing the transaction. If an investor redeems his mutual fund units then AMCs are authorized to deduct at the source level, while if an investor sells his/her units to others through stock exchange then the respective brokerage house through which the client has sold will deduct the STT at the source.

STT will be applicable in the case of a transaction that takes place in the exchanges. For availing the exemption in the case of long-term capital gain, the asset under consideration has to be subjected to STT. It is applicable on all selling transactions for both options and futures contracts. For the purpose of STT, each future trade is valued at the actual traded price and options trade is valued at a premium.

STT is applicable at different rates depending upon the transaction (whether purchase or sell) and the security (whether equity or derivative). After simplifying the tax structure and reducing it further the key is to increase the participation, which makes the market strong and less volatile.

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Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas:

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Delivering Exceptional Legal Services for over 100 years

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Approach to focuses on avoiding disputes and litigation by drafting and negotiating appropriate, unambiguous and enforceable contracts

ompanies face increasing business challenges globally, including more onerous regulations & enforcement by local authorities in the countries where they operate. Legal and tax professionals help clients to develop commercial solutions for domestic and multinational companies with controversy assistance.

Professional lawyers are very experienced in advising companies at each stage of their business – from entity formation, to continuity planning for business, to financing needs etc. Counseling clients regarding the creation of corporate policies and benefits plans as their businesses grow and expand through merger and acquisition activity are performed by the lawyers. With offering a broad base of commercial business law services in multiple jurisdictions, global reach of lawyers provide businesses facing complex legal regulations and challenges with personalized, tailormade services.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas was founded on the basis of delivering outstanding legal services. The firm is committed to consistently deliver quality. That means providing timely, innovative, integrated, relevant and solution-oriented legal advice, which is also cost-effective. The lawyers strive to understand clients’ needs and circumstances, to think independently and maintain honesty, fairness, integrity, and professionalism in everything they do. It is the largest fullservice law firm in India, with over 600 lawyers, including 100+ partners, and offices in India's key business centers – Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Chennai.

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Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas was founded on May 11, 2015, under the leadership of Cyril Suresh Shroff, a thirdgeneration lawyer and the firm’s Managing Partner.

Suresh Amarchand Shroff, the second generation of the founder family, led the Firm’s growth through the 1970s and 1980s, securing the firm’s unparalleled and preeminent role in India's legal sector. This was followed by a further period of exponential growth, including the launch of several offices from 2002 onwards. During this time, in 1994, Cyril Suresh Shroff took over as the Managing Partner of the Mumbai and south region of AMSS, helping to build a firm of unparalleled experience and reputation in the Indian legal fraternity.

Mr. Shroff has over 37 years of experience in a range of areas, including corporate and securities law, disputes, banking, infrastructure, private client, financial regulatory and others. He has been recognized as a “legendary figure in the Indian legal community” and regarded as the “M&A King of India”. Mr. Shroff has been instrumental in advising the establishment of new family offices as well as providing ongoing strategic advice to families with established Family Offices. He is also a member of various advisory boards set up by the promoters of family businesses (formally and informally) Mr. Shroff was member of the SEBI committee on Corporate Governance. He is a member of the first apex advisory committee of the IMC International ADR Centre; a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Study of the Legal Profession established by the Harvard Law

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School; a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Securities Markets and on Board of IIM, Trichy.

Marking a Strong Presence through Advisory Initiatives Market sources unanimously agree that the team has a strong presence in almost every segment market, with one declaring that “their credentials speak for themselves.”

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has won the ‘M&A Deal of the Year (South Asia)’, ‘Energy Firm of the Year’, and ‘Private Client Firm of the Year’ awards at The Asia Legal Awards 2018 hosted by The Asian Lawyer.

The Firm has a team of ex-regulators from key regulatory bodies such as Mr. U.K. Sinha, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Mr. Ashok Chawla, former chairperson of the Competition Commission of India, Mrs. Usha Narayanan, former Executive Director of SEBI, Mr. P. K. Bagga of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and Mr. Anand Sinha former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The Firm is the only law firm in India to have expertise of this kind, and the ex-regulators very frequently assists on complex transactions and help understand the regulatory overlay and implications.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has recently set up a Corporate Governance Center (CAM-CGC) as part of the firm. The initiatives of the CAM – CGC will be wide ranging and will include providing specialized, bespoke board advisory services, assisting companies in setting up internal governance procedures and controls, representation in shareholder/ activist engagements engaging with Indian and international stakeholders and training of board members and senior management.

Improving Legal Services through AI In India, startups have now started providing AI-enabled case-law research tools driven by summarization algorithms coupled with machine-learning algorithms. For ranking and showing the most relevant cases, such tools help to inform lawyers on which cases are better suited to be cited in the Courts over others. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is now leveraging the power of AI for contract analysis and review.

It also provides analytics on how the network of cases is inter-related. With the pace of innovation in Natural Language Processing increasing, AI has become a plausible and potential disruptive force in the legal services space.

It has adopted an Artificial Intelligence system called Kira last year to improve its services. The system uses Artificial Intelligence to identify, analyze, and extract clauses and other information from contracts and documents with utmost precision, thereby eliminating human error

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Cyril Suresh Shroff Managing Partner substantially. This use of Artificial Intelligence by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has made it the first firm in India to improve efficiency, accuracy and the delivery speed of certain legal services.

Awards and Accolades Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is praised for its market knowledge and deep understanding of business needs. It has been recently awarded with India: National Law firm of the Year 2018 by most prestigious Chambers and Partners at their Chambers and Asia Pacific Awards ceremony, and Most Innovative Law Firm of the Year – India and M&A Deal of the Year for Rosneft Essar Oil Deal at the IFLR Asia Awards 2018. India Business Law Journal named as “Best Overall Law Firms 2017 – 2018” Looking Ahead Towards a Determined Future Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has deep roots, but it has the future to be looked upon as a trusted advisor for its clients across the globe. The Firm’s strive to understand clients’ needs and circumstances, to think independently and maintain honesty, fairness, integrity, and professionalism in everything they do. The Firm is looking ahead to bringing its partners and associates together with a new blue print for the future. Based on a strong client-focused value system, it has a collaborative work culture and a pragmatic and solution-oriented approach to problem solving.

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Peaks & Valleys

Trends that are Driving

in India

open

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ndians are known for their ‘street smart’ economic mindset that enables them to find solutions to impregnable challenges despite the constraints.

This is the similar ‘innovative mindset’ which is making Indian entrepreneurs embrace analytics, digitisation, and technology to develop platforms and deliver services and products to the end customer creating a new online buying behavior.

In the context, India’s retail opportunity is substantial and affected by several factors such as the rising standards of living, hyper-connected young population, upwardly mobile middle class, the explosion of social media platforms, deeper internet penetration, and increased smartphone penetration. So, a significant growth of e-Commerce is expected in the next two years.

Gaining Momentum of Government Initiatives The Government of India has been active in leveraging and embracing e-Commerce digital platforms to transform and organize traditional offline markets such as those of agricultural product. The Government has launched an ecommerce platform to link the farmers with the vegetable markets of various states to sell the agro commodities. Also, flagship initiatives such as Start-up India, Digital India, Skill India, and Innovation Fund are contributing to the growth of the e-commerce industry.

Increase in the Internet Penetration The e-commerce industry in India has been growing with the rise in the internet penetration due to major improvements in the telecom infrastructure. While the 3G and 4G services are making a way into India along with declining data tariffs, internet data spend is growing significantly. Even when India ranks the lowest in Asia in internet speed, the data rates in India are 3 times cheaper than in the US and 2 times cheaper than in China.

Government schemes such as a National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) can significantly increase the internet penetration in the rural communities as well as provide a means for e-commerce companies to tap the huge market potential there.

Growth in Smartphone Adoption Smartphone growth has been massive over the years and is expected to exhibit more growth in the coming years. The smartphone’s adoption in India is propelled by several factors such as low prices due to high competition, ease of accessibility to content, and prevalence of internet enabled services. According to a report, India has the highest share

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of globally 41% of mobile based e-commerce sales. Almost 70-75% of the online traffic of e-commerce sites come from mobile phones, the leading e-commerce companies stated and thus higher revenues are coming from mobile applications like 50% for Flipkart while 70% for Quikr.

Evolution of New Payment Solutions Cash on Delivery (CoD) has been the most popular mode of payment for Indian e-commerce transactions. Cash transactions result in high administration cost even for the e-commerce companies. Hence, to address these challenges, new digital payment solutions are evolving. Further, the Indian government’s initiative has extended banking facilities through the ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ scheme which has added over 110 million debit cards thereby providing these customers access to electronic payments. The electronic wallets have been launched and also digital payment products from traditional banks for faster transactions to ease the payment process in e-commerce.

Partnerships of Logistics Space with Hyper-local Companies and India Post Customers are getting next-day delivery of products. Due to the challenges in terms of return orders, higher standards of customer service, and handling huge volumes of delivery, the industry has seen the rise of several third-party logistics service providers that handles last-mile deliveries. There is an increasing number of partnerships of e-commerce companies with the third-party logistics service providers in order to reach mainly in tier two and three cities. Also leading e-commerce players have their own logistics arms for enhanced customer experience and for greater control on deliveries.

GST to Enhance the Growth of e-Commerce GST is expected to enforce a single comprehensive indirect tax regime that will be applicable across on the supply of goods and services across all states. The implementation of GST is expected to include the service tax, central excise duty, and additional customs duty at the central level and CST, VAT, and entry tax at the state level. It will enhance an operational efficiency of the e-commerce industry in the many ways like the transparency and simplification of taxes across the borders in India, elimination of the incidence of double-taxation, and improvement in the efficiency of the supply chain The e-commerce is changing the lives of millions, but there are also a number of people who prefer offline shopping. If e-commerce is to make a huge impact in the coming years then these trends will definitely affect the business.

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LAWFORU:

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A Promising Legal Advisor

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We provide fair and honest legal services to our clients.

ransforming an idea into leading a law firm in this modern technology-driven and highly competitive world is not mere cake walk. Performing innovatively and thinking out of the box is the need of the hour. The major trends currently shaping the law enforcement field include: community oriented policing, technology usage, leadership and organizational changes, increased accountability, oversight of police departments, and police response to minor crimes. Law firms have to follow these trends and perform accordingly to succeed and excel among competitors.

one of the best high court lawyers in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Andhra Pradesh. He has wide and rich, 15 years of experience in Family, Civil and Criminal cases in Hyderabad. He has also dealt with many cases like divorce, property case, name change, family case, criminal & civil cases, violation of human rights, will, promissory note and so on. He has been practicing in Hyderabad High Court since 2003, and has become the number one family lawyer in 2018. “Every Case is a new challenge to me, and I always set out to improve in terms of justice, law and morality” Mr. Sai Krishna Azad says

One such leading law firm is LAWFORU. It provides many types of legal services that include name change, divorce cases, family cases, criminal and civil cases, violation of human rights, promissory note case dealings, and property law cases.

Mr. Sai Krishna Azad is fantastic in human relations as well as dealing with law procedures. He actively participates in solving the problems of the common man.

He provides quick solutions to legal queries of clients and replies back within 24 hours to address a query and offers free and quick consultation, from his website, through quick phone calls or appointments. Many times, in law cases it is advisable to negotiate outside the court premises with a good attorney and having an experienced person to win the case in the court hall. Azad is efficient on both the sides of

The Founder of LAWFORU Mr. Sai Krishna Azad is the Founder of LAWFORU. He established the company to take the law to the people. He is

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the coin. He is excellent and well versed in his profession and is called in many TV shows to offer his expert guidance to the viewers.

Facing Challenges Head-On The company believes in accomplishing all the objectives by facing challenges and successfully overcoming them.

Mr. Sai Krishna Azad states that dealing divorce cases has been the biggest challenge in his career. The company initially tried to unite both parties and the case took months to solve. But now with their expertise in divorce cases, they are capable of dealing with it within months.

“A lawyer is your representative in the court of law to seek your justice. Be careful with your representative, as it is justice which is at stake” says Mr. Sai Krishna Azad.

The company believes that being in the profession of law each and every case is a challenging one for them. The next biggest challenge for the company has been dealing with criminal and civil cases. It fights with the government in many cases to help poor and middle class people. For example, in a recent case where a person died in metro underground work, the company contended with the government and helped his family to get an amount of 4 lakhs.

Quality and Affordability: The Hallmarks of LAWFORU The company aims at providing service of the highest quality at an affordable rate. Having an experience of 15 years, it maintains strong human relations. Its strong client testimonials speak for it. LAWFORU is available 24/7 and maintains an online presence through websites and social media. It efficiently handles the team and ensures to hire professional advocates who provide high comfort levels to the clients.

Major Achievements LAWFORU has achieved many milestones throughout its successful journey. It is currently working on Musi River Hyderabad pollution case, NRI Family Law & NRI properties, and the Tekkali land issue (70 families are suffering from this case).

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Sai Krishna Azad Founder The company had an amazing experience with a client in “Gold Biscuits Case”. The client was a railway coolie, who found a packet full of gold biscuits while going home. He took the packet and gave it to the nearest police station.

Two days later, the police called him, kept him in jail and started beating him stating that the packet contained 30 gold biscuits, but there were only 24. The policemen started threatening and beating him, and eventually, he lost his job as a railway coolie.

The client approached LAWFORU, who solved the case within 2 months helped him regain his job.

Future Plans The company is presently operating in Hyderabad, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It intends to expand its services throughout India. LAWFORU is interacting with the best and famous advocates in each and every location of India, and is offering them a membership. www.lawforu.com

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Business Things

EASY OF DOING

BUSINESS IN INDIA

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ince the year 2014, the Government of India has launched many effective reforms for setting up of business in India and paved the smooth platform to create the business friendly environment for the global investors who intend to invest in the Indian Market. Such remarkable efforts can be evidently seen from starting up of the business to the trading across borders, protecting the minority investors. As per the World Bank Report of Ease of Doing Business, 2018, India ranked 100th out of the 190 Countries which were surveyed which 30 place jump as compare to the last year’s ranking. The Report says that “India stands out this year as one of 10 economies that improved the most in areas measured

by Doing Business”. Several measures have been adopted the Indian Government to boost its ranking such as online system for obtaining the construction permit, implementing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, registering the property, enforcing the contracts etc.

With the introduction of regulatory reforms for operating the Businesses in India, many new sectors have been opened up for Foreign Investment in India. Such reforms have focused on the Ease of Doing Business in India by

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increasing the sectoral limit for the existing sectors and have simplified the conditions of the FDI policy with a view to make investor friendly.

FACTORS THAT LED TO EASE OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA • Political Stability and Security Foreign Direct Investment is considered to be the most important factor for economic growth in the country. This is however depends upon the political stability of the country which includes the absence of violence, longevity of the Indian Government, legitimacy and effective decision making which in turn impact the development in the country.

Considering these factors, India is now recognized as one of the largest economy in the world because of the stabled economic policy and smooth access to foreign markets which provides the way for ease of doing business in India.

• Unexplored Markets The investment in India is also dependent upon the large section of markets which were remained unexplored. This could be explained by an example i.e. the setting up of the BPO Call Centre where the foreign investors had the large scope for

exploring the domestic markets by which the service was rendered with the help of one call only.

• Labour Force: Talent & Skills The labour force in the Indian Market has also contributed in the economic development of the country. These labour are available in terms of skilled and unskilled human resources by which the foreign investors take advantage of cheap and skilled labors.

Further, The Ministry of Labor & Employment has taken the effective steps not only in developments of the technology but has adopted many changes in the laws and regulation which provides better clarity and alleviation in conducting businesses.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT To start with the Investment in India, the two routes i.e. the Automatic Route and the Government Route are known as Entry Routes. As per the Automatic Route, the nonresident investor who wants to invest in India doesn’t require the approval from the Government and with respect to the Government Route; the prior approval is mandatorily required. The Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP) is the online portal introduced by Indian Government which facilitates the

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single clearance of applications. Once the application is submitted, it shall be directed to the concerned Department for processing in accordance with the Standard Operation Procedure.

Please note that the approval from FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) has been abolished and the new interface (FIFP) has been launched which makes the process easier and simpler with the single click only.

project office is prohibited to carry out any other activities other than the project.

Local Indian Subsidiary Foreign Companies which can be set up as Wholly Owned Subsidiaries in the form of Private Companies, subject to the FDI regulations. The shares of these subsidiaries can be held by the foreign companies thus, considered to be the easiest and preferred route for the investment in India.

ENTRY INTO INDIA

Gautam Khurana Founder & Managing Partner India Law Ofces

About the Author Gautam Khurana is an India lawyer, registered with Bar Council of India. He is the Founder & Managing Partner at India Law Ofces. He specializes in Foreign Inward Investments and Corporate Laws in India, with extensive experience in acquisitions & takeovers, corporate laws, cross border litigation & arbitration, Insolvency and bankruptcy, project & structured nancing and direct & indirect taxes both domestic & overseas jurisdictions.

He is currently on the board of the reputed Indian as well as International companies and has advised clients across diverse sectors on all aspects pertaining to joint ventures, inbound investments and acquisitions. He is a frequent speaker in many Domestic & International Conferences & has spoken about business, commercial & legal matters in India & Europe.

He regularly contributes to Jordan Publishing-Lexis Nexis on International Corporate Procedures & World Bank Survey on Ease of doing business.

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There are several structures through which the Foreign Investors can carry out the business in India. These are as mentioned below: Liaison Office These offices are set up by the foreign corporations to carry out the liaison activity in India. In other words, it can be defined as a channel to facilitate the business promotion by establishing the permanent presence in India. However, all the expenses incurred in the Indian office are remitted from the Head Office.

Branch Office The branch office is setup by the Foreign Company in India with the approval of RBI and undertakes the permitted commercial activities. It can also carry the additional activities, subject to the permission of the RBI. The expenses incurred in the operations of the branch offices can be incurred by the Indian office as permitted by RBI, in case the Indian office does not receive any revenue from the Indian operations then the amount will be remitted by the Parent Company.

Project Office The Project office can be set up in India only after entering into the contract with the Indian Company and thereafter execute the specific project, subject to the approval of RBI and the fulfillment of other conditions. The

Limited Liability Partnership An LLP is regulated by the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 which came into force on 1 April, 2009. FDI is permitted in an LLP subject to the prior approval of the Government however, in case of Automatic Route, 100% FDI is permitted in an LLP. There are various sectors in the LLPs are not allowed to operate such as agricultural activity, plantation, print media or real estate business.

LEGAL AND REGULATORY REFORMS IN EASE OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA • Insolvency Code With the introduction of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, India has recognized the rights of foreign creditors to participate in the proceedings of the Winding up of companies. The Code provides easy exit mechanism with 180 day time bound process which resolves the insolvency dispute as compare to early passage of the Code which took 4-3 years in India to liquidate the business.

The Code is considered to be the key reform which facilitates the ease of doing business and ensures the optimum utilization of resources within a firm or releasing the unutilized resources for the closure of the firm.

• Impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) With the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST), it will attract more

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FDI because of the transparency in the tax reforms and ease of doing business.

This will further reduce the logistics cost, cost in tax and regulatory compliance, efficiency of supply chain which would create the platform for the foreign investors to enter into the Domestic Market and can also lead to the increase the export import trade.

Ritika Sharma Advocate India Law Ofces

About the Author Ritika Sharma is an Advocate, working with India Law Ofces, having an experience in corporate and commercial areas. She has assisted several clients on various sectors including the Arbitration, Double Taxation matters, Anti-Dumping matters, Marine Insurance and Corporate Litigation. Apart from the professional work, she has participated and presented research papers at various National and International Conferences in the areas of Corporate Laws, Intellectual Property Rights and Other Economic Legislations.

She has completed her masters in International Trade Laws from National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kerala and is enrolled with Bar Council of Delhi in the year 2011 and holds the Certicate of Practice issued by the Bar Council of India.

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• Transfer Pricing In a move to boost Ease of Doing Business in the Indian Marker, the Government has introduced the Mutual Agreement Procedures and Advance Pricing Agreements with all the countries. Such change in the regulations have lowered down the compliance for domestic transfer pricing and also increased the international transactions.

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES • Starting a Business in India With respect to the incorporation of Companies, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs have launched a new interface which is known as SPICe i.e.

Simplified Proforma for Incorporating a Company electronically) through which the company can be incorporated within 1 day. The concerned ministry has reduced the fee for incorporation of Company and also the requirement for company seal has also been eliminated at the time of incorporating a company. Further, the Government has also abolished FIPB to simplify the FDI proposals and have introduced the new network interface for submitting the single application.

• Construction Permits Various Municipal Corporations in India have initiated the single window approval system for issuing the building permits with the various features such as Common Application Form, digital signature and online scrutiny of the building plans and maps eliminating the need of the physical submission of the documents. Also, the site inspection for construction permits

has been minimized by way of selfcertification and introducing third party certification.

• Trading Across Borders The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has formulated the Single Window Project' Mechanism with a view to facilitate trade. Now, the importers and exporters can submit their declarations through online mode with digital signature. The documents for the filing purposes have been reduced to three which includes Bill of Lading, Invoice cum Packing List and Import Declaration.

• Enforcing Contracts The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act 2015, has been enacted and are already in Delhi and Bombay High Court with a view to render the Speedy and Time Bound disposal of commercial disputes.

Further, the Government also proposed to set up the courts for electronic filing of complaints, summons and payments.

• Electricity The distribution companies have stipulated that the electricity connection will be provided within 15 days and the number of documents which were required to be obtained for such electricity connection shall be reduced to 2. With respect to the industrial electricity connection, the NOC/Consent for setting up the new projects is not mandatorily required.

Thus, all the above discussed reforms would attract the foreign investment and are considered to be the big boost to the India’s business environment across the globe. Through these opportunities which were introduced by the Indian Government, it has paved the way for foreign investors, particularly Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in doing investment in the country.

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LawRex:

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Offering Realistic and Cost-effective Legal Consultancy and Advisory Services and Practical Legal Solutions

We provide prompt, efficient, cost-effective and quality services and practical legal solutions.

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aws and regulations are the backbone of democratic India. A well-functioning legal services sector ensures that they are properly implemented and complied with. For the legal services sector to deliver services, environment that create a level-playing field, and promote competition and innovation to the benefit of consumers, are imperative. That said, environment that is not congenial can be dangerous and stifle growth and legal professionals and law firms contribute a lot towards creating and maintaining such congenial environment.

LawRex, headed by Ashok Kr Anchalia , Advocate, provides practical, efficient, cost-effective and prompt legal consultancy and advisory services to its clients which are primarily constructive, forward looking and preventive. In LawRex, they provide and structure legal solutions and strategy with due emphasis on practical and commercial aspects of the same, basically in the field of Joint Ventures, Foreign Direct Investments, Overseas Direct Investments, National & Transnational, Corporate/Capital Restructuring, Mergers and Acquisitions.

They also do the Tax Planning in relation to cross-border transactions and investments on considering and with specific reference to Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements that India has with various countries as well as tax laws of various jurisdiction; Transfer Pricing and Permanent Establishment, Listing of Securities in national and international stock exchanges including documentation pertaining to Initial Public Offerings as well as FCCB under ADR/GDR route, raising of External Commercial

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Borrowing, protection of Intellectual Property rights, matters pertaining to Reserve Bank of India and other governmental and regulatory approvals for FDI / ODI, ECB, Compounding, etc.

For dispute resolution, LawRex provides effective legal advisory and representation services for national and international commercial arbitrations both adhoc and institutional (like ICC Paris, SIAC Singapore, LMAA London, LCAA London), matters under Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code 2016 in NCLT and NCLAT, commercial/civil legal proceedings in various courts in India, etc. The expert team at LawRex has diverse educational background and experience which include persons having multiple specialized educational and professional qualifications like Chartered Accountancy, Business Management, etc., apart from qualification of Law. LawRex has the distinction of having a wide clientele base from all sectors of industry and from India and abroad.

Multinationals having presence in more than 25 countries, corporate giants listed in reputed Stock Exchanges like LSE, NYSE and NASDAQ, International Charitable and Educational Organizations have reposed their faith and confidence in Ashok Kr Anchalia to avail his legal advisory and consultancy services on continuous and sustained basis.

About the Intellectual Leader of LawRex With an extensive experience in Legal Advisory, LawRex is headed by Ashok Kr Anchalia. He is a Commerce Graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta, Law Graduate from

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Bangalore University and Master of Business Administration (Finance) from Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management, Calcutta, India’s oldest Management Education Institute. Ashok Kr Anchalia is known to his clients for his personalized and practical legal consultancy and advisory services, in a prompt, efficient and cost-effective manner.

Ashok Kr Anchalia, apart from his other team members, is ably assisted by his two sons, A. Chandan Anchalia, B.Com, LLB, A.C.A. (focusing on matters involving International Taxation, Mergers & Acquisitions and Finance) and Darpan Anchalia, B.Com, LLB, A.C.A. (assisting as a Lawyer), both of whom individually have over decade experience across various consulting firms including Big 4 accounting and audit firms.

Changing Challenges into Opportunities At LawRex, they faced the biggest challenge in their practice with clients wanting efficient and cost-effective practical legal solutions while fully taking into consideration commercial aspects whenever involved.

Provision of such commercially prudent practical legal solutions in a timely and cost-effective manner to their clients is the biggest challenge that LawRex has been able to successfully meet. Opportunities for LawRex arise from the fact that Ashok Kr Anchalia is an independent professional Director in more than a dozen Indian companies where he represents the foreign investors / stakeholders. Such companies create captive client base for all legal issues, compliances and solutions that may arise in a corporate life. This apart, reference through satisfied clients opens up further opportunities. Further, one has to keep himself fully abreast of latest developments, changes, modifications, etc. in law the legal framework and legal process through amendments, enactments, judicial pronouncements, etc. Such challenges open up opportunities by themselves. Just to cite a few as example, introduction of Companies Act, 2013 opened up various new opportunities and similarly introduction of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 has given rise to tremendous opportunities under the Code, opportunities with the creation of NCLT, NCLAT, etc., to legal practitioners and LawRex is no exception.

Empowering Clients with Best Legal Strategies The following words of appreciation from the Chairman of a reputed Australian Company, on whose behalf a joint venture of more than US$ 25 million was forged with the legal assistance of Ashok Kr Anchalia fully reveal the competence of LawRex. “We are of the view that your knowledge and application of law of India in second to none and we feel very reassured to be in your hands.

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Advocate Ashok Kr Anchalia along with his sons, CA Chandan Anchalia & Advocate Darpan Anchalia Further it is apparent that you have an extensive commercial knowledge to compliment your legal skills, both of which were amply and expertly demonstrated on Wednesday.”

Amongst LawRex’s clients Ashok Kr Anchalia is highly respected not only for his competence in the legal field, but for the person that he is and this is what a renowned scientist and inventor from USA holding several pharmaceutical patents to his credit has to say about Ashok Kr Anchalia, “Dear Ashok bhai, you are a personification of ancient Indian wisdom, ethics and intelligence”.

Future Advancements Looking forward, LawRex is working on various complicated legal advisory projects including cross border acquisitions, FDI into India, advising on investing overseas

by Indian corporates, setting-up Indian operations on behalf of foreign industrial group, entrepreneurs, corporates, etc., apart from various high value commercial arbitration and complex litigations in India and abroad as well as Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code mattes in NCLT and NCLAT. Although, LawRex primarily has practice areas in civil, commercial and tax field, is in the process of branching out to other areas of practice including criminal matters and intellectual property Rights. LawRex is succinctly building up its core competence and team in this regard.

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Twists &Turns

Fostering

of NBFCs

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n India, the NBFC sector has experienced a substantial revolution over the past few years.

It has come to be accepted as one of the systematically significant modules of the financial system and has shown reliable year-on-year evolution. NBFC composes a precarious role in the core expansion of infrastructure, wealth creation opportunities, transport, employment generation and financial support for economically weaker segments; they also create a vast influence to the state exchequer.

In order to play in the fluctuating advancing landscape, NBFCs must understand the mammoth value of substitute data and build investments in technology and analytics to progress an advanced credit scoring model that powers both nontraditional and traditional data sources. NBFCs will have to advance behavior-based credit risk models on the positions of those

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advanced by online lenders, which integrate the social graph, employment history, personal network and educational background of the debtor into their credit scoring rules.

Customers who are experienced to attain credit, but are impotent to do so because of their credit score will precisely benefit from the use of marginal credit scoring mechanisms that work besides the NBFC’s traditional credit underwriting model.

This will familiarize spur product innovation, healthy competition and eventually help support the Indian government’s outline of complete financial inclusion.

Growing outline of NBFCs Over the years, NBFCs have appeared as essential financial intermediaries, mostly in the retail and small-scale sector, in under-served zones and un-

banked regions. NBFCs have evolved out to be evolution engines in a ground where amplified prominence is consigned to financial insertion. The developing significance of the NBFC segment in the Indian financial system has directed to a moving scenery of the NBFC structure. The progression of the regulatory framework for NBFCs in India has moved out through a cyclical phase–from streamlined regulations too stringent and allembracing regulations and finally towards validation as part of the newly studied NBFC regulatory framework.

Accumulation of resources of various NBFCs in a cluster It has been proposed that various NBFCs that are guided by a mutual set of promoters should not, for regulatory and supervisory determinations, be viewed on an impartial basis but in aggregate. In line with the

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Evolution

commendation, the revised regulatory framework offers for the aggregation of total assets of all NBFCs in the group to regulate the categorization and administration of an NBFC as an NBFC-ND. If the integrated asset size of all NBFCs within the group is more, each NBFC in the group will have to fulfill with the regulations applicable to NBFCs-ND-SI. NBFCs have been frolicking with an identical key role from the macroeconomic standpoint and as a core compound in the Indian financial system. NBFCs are positively evolving as improved substitutes to the conservative banks for meeting the financial desires of various sectors.

However, to endure and to persistently cultivate, NBFCs have to emphasize on their main strengths while refining on weaknesses. They will have to be very energetic and continuously striving to search for new services and product in

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order to continue in this evercompetitive financial market. Due to the groundbreaking and vigorous nature of the NBFC sector, there is an essential reform to the regulatory framework.

Streamlining of guidelines for core investment companies The core investment companies’ regulations were distributed by the RBI as a welcome move, with the objective to streamline the NBFC framework and regulations that relate to assembly holding companies. However, since its initiation, the industry is struggling to get a whole clarity on this framework and, thereby, the structure has not completely taken off well. There are still concernes with regards to the description of a core investment company. Also, with the prevailing situations for a thing to succeed as a core investment company, it may be

challenging for that entity to commence any other business activity of the assumed entity. For occurrence, there could be some group holding companies which not only keep shares of the group companies but also accept other business actions in the same entity.

The NBFC piece is a facilitator to the economic expansion of the country.

The RBI is persistently struggling to convey essential fluctuations in the NBFC regulatory space to proactively deliver regulatory support to the section and also to safeguard financial stability in the protracted run.The approaching changes in the pipeline will further fortify the sturdiness of the NBFC sector and consent them to activate in an empowering regulatory environment.

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S. Jalan & Company: A Full-service Law Firm Providing Services at Par with International Standard and Requirements

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We offer unparalleled services in Litigation, Arbitration and Transactional Advisory Services and are known for the service we offer and by the company we keep.

70 year old full service law firm hailing from Kolkata, S. Jalan & Company has multilocational presence with full-service offices in New Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ranchi and Bangalore where it enjoys a coveted niche.

Today, the Firm is headed by 7 equity partners. The Firm advises and strategizes commercial transactions as well as contests commercial litigation and arbitrations on behalf of its clients. The Firm’s diverse client portfolios comprises business houses and industries of repute spread out across the globe in the infrastructure sector, real estate sector, manufacturing sector, FMCG sector, banking and financial sector, HNIs etc. The knowledge database, teams dedicated to round the clock service and practice area specific experts enables the Firm to provide services at par with international standards and requirements.

Founder of S. Jalan & Co. The Founder of S. Jalan & Company, Late Mr. Shyamanand Jalan, was a senior solicitor and a legal

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luminary, both for his involvement as a solicitor in the Calcutta High Court and for his work as a leading real estate law expert. At the same time, Mr. Jalan was a thespian and a patron of Hindi Theatre in India. He was a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 1972.

The Spirited and Dynamic Partner of S. Jalan & Co. Mr. Sourav Ghosh has been an Equity Partner of the Firm for more than 14 years and he has been instrumental in expansion of the Firm pan India. His enterprise and vision has steered the Firm to great heights including successfully branching out the operations of the Firm from Kolkata to pan India. He is a reputed Solicitor in the legal fraternity and also the industrial circle in India.

Mr. Ghosh, at a very young age has built a reputation for himself as an entrepreneurial lawyer and advises the business houses not only for legal solutions but also about business oriented legal solutions. His repertoire of clients includes multinational corporations associated with him March 2018|

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for advisory, litigation and transactional work. Under his aegis in the past 10 years, a plethora of corporate houses have associated with the Firm as clientele and they continue to retain the services of the Firm. His expertise lies in business and commercial laws, real estate laws and dispute resolution. As a lawyer, he has dealt with a variety of matters like international arbitration in Singapore, Seoul, Jakarta and Hong Kong, mining documentation, international acquisition of companies, coal mine takeover etc. He has travelled extensively across the globe as a lawyer and continues to travel throughout India for his diverse clientele spread across the country.

Mr. Ghosh believes in organic growth of the Firm, that young lawyers joining as freshers should elevate themselves over time to equity partners within the Firm.

This philosophy has found success as some Equity Partners and many Associate Partners working with the Firm today have all grown in the Firm over time.

Prompt and Proficient Delivery of Services The Firm is led by spirited and dynamic partners supported by enthusiastic lawyers whose learning of the law and practical application thereof for professional assignments is par excellence. The Firm follows the shortest possible turnaround time in delivery of legal services, which gives it a unique competitive edge. The Firm's multi-locational presence ensures a seamless network of lawyers across India, which caters to every legal requirement of clients. With lawyers dedicated to research on the latest developments in the field of law, there is continual knowledge sharing amongst the teams spread across all the offices, which allows for prompt and proficient delivery of services.

Satisfactory Experience with a Client S. Jalan & Co. has acted as a legal counsel for a leading nationalized bank of India in Strategic Debt Restructuring of 3 mining companies. The Firm has been successful in freeing from legal tangles and encumbrances a real estate project having investments of more than INR 400 Crores.

The property was mired in a 50 year old litigation between 360 odd parties and the Firm, in a year’s time, secured a favorable order from the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

Such judgment has been reported in various journals throughout the country and today the project is one of the most sought after residential projects in Kolkata.

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Sourav Ghosh Equity Partner The Future Aspiration According to Mr. Ghosh, as the law is evolving every day, traditional practices have to evolve to service oriented practices. More and more tribunals are being set up and the judicial framework is moving away from set norms.

The High Courts and the Supreme Court are now acting more as constitutional courts and litigation lawyers now have a wider field to develop specialized practice. The Firm has set up a strong practice to cater to matters in various benches of the National Company Law Tribunals for company law matters as well as matters under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code across all the benches in India and represents financial creditors, operational creditors and corporate debtors.

Keeping in mind such avenues and opportunities, the Firm expanded to multiple locations and is now continuing to carry on city wise expansion of practice. The Firm is also opening up new departments of practice within existing offices to cater to the demands of the day.

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Prevention of Sexual Harassment

[PoSH] in 2018 – A new dawn

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017 has been a watershed year at least for sexual harassment in the corporate world; be it Hollywood, media, tech companies and businesses at large. The #Metoo and #TimesUp campaign in late 2017 has brought much needed focus to the problem of rampant sexual harassment across the world.

The #Metoo campaign also saw several women in India coming out and sharing their stories of sexual harassment forcing businesses to finally take notice of the same. Though the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013 has been in force for last 4 years (apart from Vishakha guidelines being applicable for 16 prior years), the adoption of the law has been slow amongst businesses to say the least.

What corporates fail to understand is that the entire focus of the law is towards prevention of sexual harassment of women at the workplace and despite all efforts to prevent it, in case any woman believes that she was sexual harassed, she can seek redressal from the businesses’ Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). In case the business employs less than 10 workers, they don’t have to form an ICC and instead any complaint with respect to their employees would be hear by the Local Complaints Committee (LCC) to be formed in every district by government authorities. The ICC/LCC shall make its recommendation only after giving both parties a fair opportunity to present their case.

In fact compliance by the business with all the obligations under the law is like having an insurance policy wherein the

This law is amongst the first wherein the focus is upon behavioural change through periodic mandatory awareness programmes for sensitising employees so that they unknowingly do not indulge in unacceptable behaviour as well as at the same time making them aware about the adverse consequences of lodging false complaints. It further also mandates skill building of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) members since they carry the mantle of dispensing justice to both parties after following principles of natural justice.

A lot of people have a wrong belief that only if you touch a woman or talk to her inappropriately and deliberately, will it amount to sexual harassment. Once during a hearing in the Supreme Court of India on being interrupted by a female Senior Counsel during arguments, a male Senior Counsel had joking commented that the interjections by the learned senior Counsel are always delightful; for which the female advocate has immediately objected to it being sexual coloured and the Hon'ble Court had observed that she may well be right.

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Law Movements

company and its management will not be held liable thereafter even in case any sexual harassment occurs.

Non compliance by organisations till now have resulted in CEOs being summoned personally by criminal courts and corporates being fined for non compliance with the law, FIRs being filed against senior officials under Indian Penal Code for abetting criminal offence of sexual harassment and businesses being liable to pay damages to the complainant in crores under law of torts.

Businesses also run the risk of cancellation of their registration and/or operating licences in case of repeated offences.

Experience has shown that general apprehension amongst employees of law being discriminatory (why only for women and not for men) as well as susceptible to misuse by women has been the major impediments for mass implementation though the same are unwarranted in the Indian context and due to adequate safeguards being provided in the law.

Vishal Kedia, Founder Director of Complykaro Services Pvt Ltd is an eminent trainer, speaker & author and winner of Leading CEO of the Year Award & Global Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Award. Complykaro empanelled

by Government of India as a Resource Company for providing PoSH training.

The misconception stems more from the perspective of criminal law wherein an accused may be arrested by the police during investigation on account of an FIR being filed by the women for alleged sexual harassment. A woman can choose to simultaneously pursue her right to civil as well as criminal remedy.

The Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India has recently launched a comprehensive online complaint Management System [She-Box] for women working in both public and private organizations to oversee complaints of sexual harassment at workplace thereby pushing for better enforcement of the law.

Several challenges still remain; the most prominent being ignorance of law amongst employees and women in general due to which in case of sexual harassment, women see no other option but to complain to the police. Several state governments too are yet to appoint all functionaries for effective implementation of the law.

Vishal Kedia Founder Director ™

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