They stalled it till the elections, which means nothing moves till June. A new law minister will be appointed, who will take a month or so to settle in. But by then the UK elections will be approaching and the UK government will be more focused on that. So well played, SILF.

But how did they lobby so effectively? It takes a lot of clout to stall an entire FTA with a major world power like the UK! Did they approach Gautam Adani? Or Amit Shah? Or Modi himself?

having watched this space (and waited) for more than two decades, may I suggest that the reason is perhaps not how SILF blocks it but how the supposed beneficiaries do not do anything? You dont lobby, dont organise, dont petititon and yet expect that the person you seem to dislike, yes Modi, will fight your battles for you?

think about it, Modi, despite you not agreeing with him, has done more than anyone else. The rules are ready... so what are you people waiting for?

I disagree with you. The UK government has lobbied very hard and many delegations have come. But the Indian government has adamantly refused, because of SILF (or rather the family that controls SILF). The UK government cannot force India to change policy. The other thing is that India gives other concessions to the make the UK happy, such as better IPR protection of buying defence equipment.

This is true. It was Lalit Bhasin (SILF chairman) and Kian even covered it for LI many years ago. Bhasin literally said that foreign law firms will exploit India like the East India Company!

BTW do Google for Lalit Bhasin. He used to be a lobbyist and was member of the Congress party back in the 80s and 90s. Once when India Today did a story (in the 90s) calling him a lobbyist he wrote an angry letter to them claiming that he was a lawyer and not a lobbyist or fixer. I actually shared these links from India Today on LI once and will be happy to do so again if you want.

But of course Bhasin is just a token figurehead for SILF. We know who really runs SILF.

Being from the IP space and involved in EFTA-related work (through my firm) I can tell you that IP is not that much of a conflict area now. Indian companies themselves want stronger IP protection, including trade secrets for pharmaceuticals. The contentious days of the 2000s are gradually going away. So legal services are a bigger stumbling block than IP.

Look at it from the UK's side too. If India agrees to upgrade IPR laws and reduce tariffs on UK products like whisky and dairy, those will be MASSIVE gains. The UK side won't mind giving up on its claim for foreign law firm entry if these gains can be made. They will be ok with deferring it to later.

If you read the British newspapers, you will see that this isn't their top foreign policy priority right now by any means. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (David Cameron), has got rather a full plate at the moment with important conflicts and the possibility of a second Trump presidency. On top of which, the Tories have suffered humiliating defeats in recent local elections, while also experiencing high level defections: three MPs in the last two years have defected to Labour (with two of those defections taking place in the last two weeks), and Tory - Labour defection isn't something that has happened for more than 27 years, the last time being before the 1997 wipeout of the Tories, when they lost to Labour by a landslide. Talk about foreign law firm entry by all means, but don't forget the British priorities and problems. Things are disfunctional enough for the British as it is, so a squeak from SILF is more than enough for hopes to be dashed.