The Authority for Advance Rulings has recently held, in the case of Columbia Sportswear Company’s that its Indian liaison office, which was engaged in activities not confined to purchase of goods from India for export, would lead to constitution of a permanent establishment of the Applicant under the India-USA tax treaty. Consequentially, the income attributable to the activities of the liaison office of the Applicant was held taxable in India. This ruling of the AAR becomes noteworthy in view of the nature of activities undertaken by the liaison offices of foreign companies, including co-ordination with purchasers outside India, merchandising, production management, quality control etc.

The two law firms, Sarin & Co., established in Chandigarh, India in 1932, and Donald H. Bunker and Associates, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates since 1995, announced the establishment of an Affiliation between the firms, effective 20 August 2011. This Affiliation will see an enhancement of the existing strengths of both firms including, in particular, an expansion of Sarin and Co.’s aviation legal practice through access to the international aviation legal expertise of Donald H. Bunker and Associates that spans more than 40 years. Speaking on this momentous occasion, Nitin Sarin, Advocate, LL.M. in Air and Space Law of Sarin & Co. and Ian Veall, a Partner of Donald H. Bunker and Associates told India Law Journal “We are delighted and enthused to announce this Affiliation. We firmly believe that the complementary strengths of each firm, once combined, will provide clients, located in India and the Arabian Gulf, with prompt, comprehensive, affordable and practical legal and financial advice unsurpassed in the profession.”

With India’s aviation market forecasted to grow at exponential rates over the next 20 years and requiring in excess of 1300 new aircraft, the firms are well placed to meet and exceed the requirements of aviation operators (commercial, corporate and private), governmental authorities and related organisations here and abroad. As part of the Affiliation, the firms intend to initiate a series of lectures open to representatives from within the Indian aviation industry covering a range of topics including aviation law, insurance and finance under the guidance of Dr. Donald H. Bunker, currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at McGill University’s Institute of Air and Space Law in Montreal. The signing of the Affiliation Agreement, which took place in the office of Sarin & Co., Chandigarh, India, on 20.08.2011 was presided over by Mr. Scot Slessor, Consul General of Canada and Mr. Chief Justice S.S. Sodhi, President, Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has vide its notification dated August 16, 2011, amended Regulation 13 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 1992 thereby mandating certain disclosures of interest or holding and change in interest by the ‘promoters’ and members of ‘promoter group’ of a listed company. The Amendment further strengthens the insider trading regulations to prevent occurrences of insider trading by bringing in the net and obligating the promoters and the members of promoter group to make the prescribed disclosures. Accordingly, the interest of the promoters and the members of promoter group in the company and the corporate actions undertaken by them remain transparent to other stake holders in the company. Further, the control and management of a company normally vests with the promoters and members of the promoter group and when such controlling stakeholders of a company are made accountable through disclosure requirements, the corporate governance standards in the company will be ensured.

TThe Securities and Exchange Board of India has recently amended the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 to include a new chapter VI-B which provides for setting up and operating infrastructure debt funds. SEBI’s move is part of the finance ministry’s proposal to accelerate and augment capital formation for debt funding for the governments infrastructure development program. A fine reading of the proposal indicates that the regime is formulated on the lines of a private equity fund structure with adequate checks to insure participation by high net worth participants only.

Pratibha Jain has joined Nishith Desai Associates to head its Delhi office. She brings with her a breadth of international and Indian experience having worked in New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mumbai. She was till recently the Vice President and Counsel for Goldman Sachs in India. She has earlier worked as an associate with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in their New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong offices and with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher and Flom LLP in their Hong Kong office. She has extensive experience in US and Indian securities laws. Her areas of focus include private equity, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and regulatory advisory and public policy matters. Pratbiha's educational qualifications include B.A (Economics) Hons. and LL.B. degree from Delhi University, a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from the University of Oxford, where she was a St. Catherine's College Bursary Holder; and a LL.M. degree from the Harvard Law School, where she was a Samuel Morse Lane Fellow.

The Delhi and Kolkata Offices of Amarchand Mangaldas and Delhi’s AZB & Partners have advised on the International Finance Corporation’s Rs. 135 crore investments in Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited. Amarchand Mangaldas Partner Kalpataru Tripathy with Principal Associate Vineet Bansal; Principal Associate-Designate Arindam Sarkar and Senior Associate Saurya Bhattacharya led for Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited. AZB Delhi Partner Gautam Saha along with Amrita Patnaik acted for IFC, which will now hold a minority stake in the company. Speaking on the transaction, Mr. Tripathy told India Law Journal, “Our association with Bandhan has been long and pleasant. It was delightful working alongside the Bandhan team once again for IFC’s investment as they look to expand to the next level.” The company, while currently focussed on poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment through microfinance schemes across the country, also intends to make a foray into the banking sector in the future.

NHK Automotive Components India Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of NHK Spring Co. Ltd., Japan subject to obtaining regulatory approvals including from the Competition Commission of India, agreed to purchase the BCL Springs Division of Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Ltd.The BCL Springs Division is engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing springs of various kinds for use in automotive industry and located at Aurangabad. The transfer of the division shall be as a going concern on a slump sale basis for a lump-sum consideration of Rs. 180.50 crores on terms and conditions as contained in the Business Transfer Agreement which was signed on September 07, 2011. Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff advised NHK India and NHK Japan, with a team comprised of Principal Associates - Ms. Nisha Uberoi & Ms. Anubhuti Agarwal and Ms. Natashaa Shroff, Senior Associate. BBTC was advised by Udwadia & Udeshi. Sudit K Parekh acted as financial advisors to NHK India and NHK Japan.

Luthra & Luthra Law Offices received the 'New-Delhi Firm of the Year’ and the 'Project Finance Team of the year' at the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) India Awards 2011 held at the ITC Grand Central, Mumbai in July this year. Additionally this year, the Firm also swept the Infrastructure & Real Estate 'Deal of the Year' for the Dhule-Palesner Highway Project (NH-3).

Nishith Desai Associates for the second consecutive year bagged the Indian “Firm of the Year” for its Technology - Media - Telecom (TMT) practice at the IFLR India Awards 2011 which were held in July this year.

The Government of India recently notified the “Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information Rules, 2011” under Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. These Rules have been made effective from April 11, 2011. Earlier, in October 27, 2009 the Parliament inserted Section 43A in the ITA, which addressed issues in relation to data security and privacy but its implementation was not effective till the notification of the current Rules. The expressions ‘sensitive personal data or information’ and ‘reasonable security practices and procedures’ were not defined in the ITA, but are now defined in the Rules.

Clinical trial related information pertaining to patient identifiable data and trade secrets and intellectual property of the pharmaceutical companies may be exempted from disclosure under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The Central Information Commission (“CIC”) recently in Ms. Deepa Venkatachalam & Anr. vs. Directorate General of Health Services pertaining to disclosure of information on clinical trials held that pending Inquiry conducted by the Union Health Minister on the collaborative project between PATH, ICMR, Governments of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat (“Inquiry”) no information was required to be provided and only on final outcome of the Inquiry, information under Section 10 (1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (“Act”) had to be furnished. Information disclosed should be severed from any patient related information as well as pertaining to exclusive intellectual property rights of the pharmaceutical companies as protected under the provisions of the Act. In the this observation study for usage of certain drugs “Gardasil” and “Cervatrix” in an age group outside the age group on whom they were tested. The information was sought from the Directorate General of Health Services.

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation of India which manages India’s largest social security fund for employees has recently clarified to its officers that employers are required to make provident fund contributions on the minimum wages. The EPFO has issued an inter-department clarification on May 23, 2011 indicating that splitting of minimum wages for the purposes of PF contributions is not permissible. This Clarification, which has been issued in view of the lack of a uniform approach followed by the PF authorities in different states, seems to be an attempt by the labour department to settle the ongoing ambiguity with respect to the calculation of provident fund contributions.

Recently, the Bombay High Court in the case of Music Broadcast Private v. Indian Performing Right Society Limited held that the owner of copyright in relation to lyrical and musical works are not entitled to receive royalty/license fee for broadcasting of sound recording embodying such underlying (i.e. lyrical and musical) works. Over the last few years there has been a spate of litigations initiated against the copyright societies in India viz. Phonographic Performance and Indian Performing Right Society Limited for fixation of fees/royalties to be paid to them for broadcasting songs by FM radios.

John Grisham's The Confession, a novel describes the politics of a last-ditch death penalty appeal in Texas, has been named as the winner of the inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Grisham will receive a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird signed by Harper Lee. This prize created by the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal, to honor Harper Lee for the influence her novel has had in the public perception of the legal profession. The prize will be awarded annually to the published fiction book that best describes the role of lawyers in society.

The ABA is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to find that criminal defendants have a right to effective assistance of counsel at the plea bargain stage. In Lafler v. Cooper, the defendant was convicted after his lawyer advised him to reject a plea offer based on a misunderstanding of Michigan law. In the other, State v. Frye, the defendant pleaded guilty to a felony after his lawyer failed to tell him of a misdemeanor plea offer. The ABA filed its amicus brief in a pair of appeals by defendants who say they got bad lawyer advice, leading them to turn down favorable plea bargains.

Google Inc. which leads the US and global markets for search advertising, has been accused by competitors of favoring its own services over rivals in its search results. US antitrust regulators were startled about Google’s dominance of the online search industry, and it has been under investigation by the European Commission since November last year.

Clifford Chance was rewarded for its regional strength in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector named Legal Adviser of the Year at the TMT Finance Middle East Awards for the second year in a row. Dubai based corporate partner Mike Taylor said: "We are delighted to have received this award for two consecutive years. It is a real testament to our regional focus on this sector and the high profile nature of both our deals and clients."

Embroiled in a nasty battle over a proposal to outsource work now done by municipal employees, the city of Costa Mesa, California, has hired Jones Day to represent it in litigation brought by a union representing some of those employees. Facing a revenue shortfall, Costa Mesa distributed layoff notices to almost half of its workforce earlier this year and announced plans to outsource the work of more than 200 municipal employees to private companies. The Costa Mesa City Council has approved a legal services contract hiring Jones Day at a rate of $495 per hour to defend it against a suit brought by the Costa Mesa City Employees Association, according to the Orange County Register. In its suit, the union seeks a permanent injunction barring the city from moving ahead with its plan to lay off 213 municipal workers and outsource their duties to private companies. (An Orange County superior court judge issued a temporary restraining order in July barring Costa Mesa from proceeding with the privatization play unless it complies with certain state laws.)(Source:http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2011/09/costa-mesa-jones-day.html)