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Latest featured blog: India’s favourite expat lawyer in London, Nandii Reywal has an adventure with a bottle of champers and more. Click to read how Nandii Reywal got drunk, got wild and got laid (off) {jcomments off}

India’s new government could be the springboard for the country’s legal system to scale new heights.

The recent Indian elections saw a decisive win for the Congress Party, the stock markets rally, the various economic growth forecasts adjusted and the ­rating agencies ditching their gloomy ­outlook for the country (see ‘Elections’ box).

The optimism within the business ­community here is so heartfelt and the belief in the new government so strong, it is ­reminiscent of the first month or so after Barack Obama’s election victory in the US.

Nevertheless, the data for the start of the year makes for depressing reading. India, much like the rest of the world, has suffered in every major sector (see ‘Figures’ box). The country, as ever, faces incredible challenges.

But amid those challenges, even though they come with a long wish list of demands from their old but newly emboldened government, Indian lawyers are also seeing great opportunities. In India, it is business time.

India needs to enhance its arbitration offerings and overhaul its courts’ processes to give its backlog of cases any chance of closure before the year 3000.

A trip to the neo-Gothic ­Bombay High Court is an entertaining experience that should be on every visiting lawyer’s travel itinerary. Once past the sandbagged machine gun emplacements outside, loosen your tie and spend a few hours wandering about open-air corridors between throngs of locals, hundreds of offices with unfathomable purposes and court rooms filled beyond bursting point.

Also spare a thought for the unfortunate litigants, who will most likely not find the experience as enjoyable.

The running joke in India goes that, if you litigate here, your sons and daughters will inherit your dispute.