Veritas Legal

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (“IRDAI”) has been instrumental in shaping the regulatory framework governing the Indian insurance sector. Recently, by way of a press release dated 24 January 2024,

On 11th April 2023 the President of India gave her assent to the Competition Amendment Bill, 2023 (Amendment Act) which substantially overhauls the existing Competition Act, 2002 (Competition Act). Notably, the ground-work to revamp the Competition Act began in 2018 with the formation of the Competition Law Review Committee which was set up to recommend changes to the Competition Act with an aim of creating a more robust and effective competition regime. Thereafter, on 29th March 2023 and 3rd April 2023, the Lok Sabha (i.e., the lower house of the Indian parliament) and Rajya Sabha (i.e., the upper house of the Indian parliament) respectively, passed the Competition Amendment Bill, 2023. This process of modifying the Competition Act has almost reached fruition, with the various provisions of the Amendment Act now awaiting Government notifications to come into force. Set out below is a brief overview of the key changes to the Indian competition regime as contemplated in the Amendment Act.  

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released the much-awaited draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (“Draft Bill”) on 18 November 2022, which is a more concise draft legislation than its previous versions. Following are the key takeaways from the Draft Bill:

A Non-Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) is a legal document signifying mutual consent of the parties to render certain information exchanged pursuant to a commercial transaction as confidential. An NDA safeguards sensitive information owned by a party, which is being divulged to the counter party in furtherance of an objective.

In the pre-COVID-19 era, the Indian drugs and pharmaceutical industry held a third ranking worldwide for immense production by volume and fourteenth by value in 2019[1]. Subsequently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the affairs of the Indian pharmaceutical industry have benefitted from substantial changes in the regulatory regime as enumerated below.

The real estate sector is one of the most recognised sectors worldwide from an investment standpoint and primarily consists of four sub-sectors – residential, commercial, hospitality and retail. In India, the real estate sector is considered to be the backbone of the economy and is the second largest employment generator after agriculture, with a multiplier effect on 270 allied industries. In 2021, the size of the Indian real estate sector was US$ 200 billion and is expected to increase to US$ 1 trillion in 2030.

As we enter the financial year 2023, the year from which SEBI’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting Framework (“BRSR”) becomes mandatory for the top 1000 listed companies based on market capitalization, corporate commitment to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) norms continues to be in focus.

1. Legal background 1.1. Data Privacy and Protection regime in India is presently regulated by the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act 2000”) in conjunction with the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 ("SPDI Rules").

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on 8th April 2022 published the CCI (General) Amendment Regulations, 2022 (Amendment) which came into effect from the date of publication. Summarised below are the key provisions relating to the treatment of confidential information pursuant to this Amendment.