Publications

Satellite imagery is an increasingly effective source of actionable information and potential evidence. While satellite-collected/monitored data is already used extensively for administrative purposes, e.g. to update land records (via the ​‘Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme’ or to track forest fires (via the publicly accessible ​‘Van-Agni Geo-Portal’), its admissibility as evidence continues to vary based on…

Cross-border digital services pose a novel challenge to international taxation. Not covered by the traditional definition of ​‘permanent establishment’ (PE), digital services have been sought to be alternatively taxed under various ​‘source-based’ approaches: via Digital Service Taxes (or Equalization Levies), via the Significant Economic Presence (SEP) test, as Service PEs, as Dependent Agent PEs, and as Virtual PEs. Each of these…

The Indus Waters Treaty 1960 signed by India, Pakistan, and the World Bank (Indus Treaty) — negotiated over almost a decade and described as a ​“bright spot” for its balanced approach to riparian interests is now the site of recurring conflicts over India’s development of hydro-electric plants on the ​“Western Rivers” (the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab), the waters from which India is obliged to ​“let flow” except for…

A crucial arbitration award has been set aside by the Delhi High Court based on the finding that private entities carrying out state functions through commercial contracts must serve public interest. In Union of India v Reliance Industries Ltd. and Ors, an arbitral award was set aside on the basis that private corporations entrusted with sovereign functions cannot avoid constitutional accountability, notwithstanding the commercial…

In what has passed into diplomatic lore, when Henry Kissinger asked Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972 for his thoughts on the French Revolution, he replied that it was ​“too early to say.” Although the mistranslated reference was to the 1968 French student riots, it nevertheless became a metaphor for far-sighted leaders thinking in centuries rather than years. Considering the current frenzy over unilateral tariffs, looking back just a few…