Publications

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 the 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…

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.” The mistranslated reference was to the French student riots in 1968 but, before it could be corrected, the response became a metaphor for far-sighted leaders thinking in centuries rather than years. In considering the current frenzy over unilateral tariffs,…

In August 2024, a violent uprising in Bangladesh (dubbed the ​‘Monsoon Revolution’) led to a political regime change, ending the fifteen-year term of Bangladesh’s previous Prime Minister. Taking stock of Bangladesh’s economy on priority, the new interim government (supported by the military and with constitutional approval by the Bangladeshi Supreme Court) recently issued a 400-page White Paper on the State of the Bangladesh…