Can you tell us a little about your significant accomplishments over the last few years, as a team or by yourself?

In the last three years at GE, I have been involved with several significant and high-stake matters. With an extremely streamlined team, most of these are managed by me, and I work directly with my global counterparts both from business and legal teams. Top illustrations:

Management of four ongoing arbitrations in India where the claims are in excess of US700m. These are complex technological-commercial disputes and I closely work and partner with both Indian and International counsel teams, including internally with engineering, business, and HQ legal for finalisation of submissions, participating in discussions, guidance to business on important issues from an Indian law perspective, and managing the legal strategy and external counsel costs. This involves critical thinking beyond just the arbitral proceedings and in planning legal strategy.

Legal support to the business in settling dispute(s) which has helped the company save more than US30m in terms of overdue payments and securing BGs, helping parties agree upon complex financial solution and avoid a probable litigation.

Legal support and guidance to the project team in initiating an out of contract conciliation proceeding along with the customer, in order to stress test an impending commercial dispute. This helped parties avoid an expensive litigation and amicably discuss and reach a win-win commercial settlement.

Supported the commercial team in the renegotiation of price increase of a fixed priced contract and claimed FM reliefs in India due to the Ukraine war and recent spate of China covid lockdowns.

Have any recent political, economic, or regulatory changes impacted your work? How are you dealing with this?

There has been a significant economic impact on the renewables market owing to supply chain disruption because of the war in Ukraine and China Covid lockdowns in 2021-2022, which has led to input price increases. This has impacted the economic viability of projects under execution. I refer to the above example where I was able to successfully support the commercial team in re-negotiating a price increase despite it being a fixed priced contract and in claiming FM reliefs.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?

Climate is the core of GE’s entire renewables business, and our priorities are built around environment and sustainability. Business has to keep improving the ways energy and electrification is made available considering the ever-changing environmental, organisational, and technical constraints. With the proposed split of GE business, which was announced recently, we endeavour to establish a global energy business focused on affordability, reliability, and sustainability. This is also reflected in the new brand name announced – ‘GE Vernova,’ our portfolio of energy businesses, with “ver” conveying green and “nova” signalling a new era of reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy. Being an enabling and reliable legal business partner, it is essential that the team’s priorities are aligned to the fundamentals of business. It is our focus to support the advancement of the business goals by providing suitable legal guidance under the prevalent legal and regulatory framework in India.