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Title	Investment arbitration in india
Category	Business --> Lawyers
Meta Keywords	ED Pills Online, Erectile Dysfunction Medicines, erectile dysfunction medicine
Owner	Priya
Description
Our International Arbitration team provides advice and advocacy to individuals, global corporations, financial institutions, and state entities in investment treaty and commercial arbitrations conducted in accordance with all major international arbitration rules including SIAC Rules, ICC Rules, LCIA Rules, LMAA Rules, MCIA Rules, CAS Rules, and ad-hoc arbitrations, governed by distinct laws (curial and substantive). In the following years, the cancellation of telecom licences led to several claims under various BITs. In 2014, the government was replaced, and the new government decided to address the investment arbitration regime. The first step was to work on a model BIT, which was published in late 2015 (discussed here). Notwithstanding the relative backlash, the model BIT still allows for recourse to investment arbitration. However, in 2017, the government took its most drastic step to reduce India’s perceived vulnerability by terminating most of India’s existing BITs (58 out of 84). At the same time, the government abolished an FDI approval process with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (which has been met with both approval and disapproval) and is now allowing the relevant ministries to approve foreign direct investment in India if necessary. In September 2018, India signed a new BIT with Belarus and nine months later, in June 2019, another BIT with Kyrgyzstan. Both BITs provide for the possibility of investors having recourse to investment arbitration. The most noteworthy development happened a year later, namely, on 25 January 2020 when India signed a new BIT with Brazil. In the words of this blogpost, the new BIT ‘is noteworthy for its departure from the widely used investor-state arbitration mechanism in favour of state-state arbitration’. The dispute resolution mechanism included in the BIT, therefore, resembles two mechanism included in the very early days of investor-State dispute resolution; that is,  claims commissions combined with diplomatic protection. An earlier piece on this blog discusses the BIT more in depth. Another piece analyses the BIT from the Indian and Brazilian Model BIT perspective. With regards to present challenges in the Indian investment arbitration landscape, the enforcement issue should not go unexplained. Naturally, the ICSID enforcement regime of Article 53(1) ICSID Convention is not applicable in India. Recently, the Delhi High Court held in two cases (Union of India v Vodafone Group PLC United Kingdom & Anor (2017) and Union of India v Khaitan Holdings (Mauritius) Ltd & Ors (2019)) that whereas India has signed the New York Convention, it issued a ‘commercial reservation’. The High Court stated that investment arbitrations are not commercial in nature and, therefore, cannot be enforced using the New York Convention. The same rationale applies as to whether the Indian Arbitration Act (the Act) is applicable: as an investment arbitration constitutes neither an international commercial arbitration nor a domestic arbitration, the enforcement regime of the Act is inapplicable. This constitutes a major deficiency and a shortfall that must be addressed. On the other hand, this could also be seen as a tactic to discourage foreign investors from bringing treaty claims against India and/or to induce them to settle their disputes with the State (see for example, the Nissan dispute) instead of having to commence a fierce battle for enforcement of a potential award in their favour. This may be a result of India’s experience as a respondent state, culminating in a protectionist and State-centric orientation.