There was a brief but heavy 4am pre-Monsoon shower in Mumbai on Tuesday morning but the real storm was faced by the Bar Council of India (BCI) this week.

Almost exactly one year ago Legally India's first newsletter issue, Exciting Times, made its way out of and across India. Fifty issues later, much has changed but legally the Indian market remains as exciting as ever.

Does India's legal future belong to its youth?

Indian legal education finds itself at a pivotal time, with repercussions beyond just the student community. Yesterday, a number of NUJS Kolkata final year students led by professor Shamnad Basheer petitioned the Bar Council of India (BCI) to postpone the new bar exam until 2011, instead of holding it in August as originally envisaged.

Today, in a surprise U-turn, the BCI has agreed to push back the exam to December 2010.

An inconclusive week, not dissimilar to the UK's hung parliament of today.

Not quite a hung election in the fight in important legal elections. While counting is for the Mumbai Bar Councli is expected to conclude later tonight, while literally just in, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has officially elected Ram Jethmalani as its new president.

Meanwhile, India's eyes - even those of non-lawyers - were firmly fixed on two of the most important court decisions of this year.

It's official at the Supreme Court: India's next Chief Justice will be S H Kapadia and the apex court will welcome its first female judge in four years. About time.

Few things showcase the globalisation of India's legal industry more than this week's volcano eruption in Iceland, which kept at least three Indian managing partners best known by their first names out of India and stuck in New York.

Natural wastage is one of those great euphemisms that UK and US firms have been fond of during the downturn. Lawyers leave for various reasons, do not get replaced and the firm saves costs (and face) by avoiding lay-offs.

Law schools, law firms and law-related businesses are mushrooming all over the place these days as India does one of the things it does best: building enterprises.

Law firms have been seizing the week of Lord Ganesha's birthday to do many interesting things.

Luthra & Luthra has called the bottom of the slump, painting a longer term picture of where the law firm market as a whole may be headed.

Trilegal co-founding partner Anand Prasad is candid about the fact that the firm has lacked significant expertise in capital markets but the firm may be on a path to plugging that hole - and others.

For most lawyers it has been business as usual this week despite much of India descending into swine flu panic, today's streets being awash with Hindu god Lord Krishna's birthday celebrations and Independence Day national holidays tomorrow.

Deals still need to get done, after all, and there are plenty of sides to be acting for.

Indian law firms are famously enamoured with the letters of the alphabet. But is it rubbing off on the Indian tax office?