special economic zones (SEZs)
In an online straw poll of foreign law firm India group partners we conducted, 15 out of 16 (94%) responded that opening an office in a special economic zone (SEZ) in India “would not be interesting for us under any circumstances”, casting doubt over the government's current seemingly preferred approach to liberalise the Indian legal market by starting with SEZs.
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has seen a two-third increase in new cases filed in 2016 involving Indian parties, with India remaining the largest overseas jurisdiction to adjudicate in Singapore, way ahead of China.
As first reported by Live Law this week, the ministry of commerce and industry, which has been spearheading the government’s efforts to liberalise the legal market, alongside the law ministry, has revoked a ban on the practice of law from special economic zones (SEZs), by issuing a notification in the Gazette of India amending the Special Economic Rules governing Special Economic Zones on 3 January 2017.