The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 (the “Bill”) introduces a comprehensive restructuring of the director and governance framework under the Companies Act, 2013, raising eligibility thresholds, tightening disqualification triggers, formalising the lifecycle of Director Identification Numbers, and materially expanding the scope of independent director obligations. Read together, these provisions mark a clear legislative intent: accountability at the board level is no lon

I. The Policy Architecture: Why Decriminalisation Matters Now India's corporate regulatory framework is undergoing a structural reset. The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 (the “Bill”), currently under review by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, represents the most comprehensive recalibration of the Companies Act, 2013 and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 (“LLP Act”) since the 2019 decriminalisation cycle. At its core, the Bill does what Indian corporate law

Introduction The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, proposes consequential reforms to audit, valuation, and financial reporting regulation that fundamentally reconstitute the compliance landscape. National Financial Reporting Authority (“NEFRA”) would transition from a standards body into a fully empowered enforcement regulator with eleven new statutory powers. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (“IBBI”) would become India's first-ever Valuation Authority with cri

Introduction Modern family businesses in India are now using structured setups like family trusts, holding companies, and Special Purpose Vehicles (“SPVs”) to manage ownership, control, and succession within their complex family. As these businesses grow over time and across different sectors, family relationships, ownership rights, and business operations often start overlapping, which can lead to confusion and conflicts. A properly designed layered structure helps separat

The Quiet Risk in Wealth Conversations: What Happens When There Is No Plan? Most conversations around wealth tend to stop at its accumulation, with far less attention given to how that wealth is to pass on death, particularly in the absence of a will. Yet, it is precisely in such situations that the law assumes complete control. Where a person dies intestate, the devolution of their estate is not guided by intention or convenience, but by a predetermined statutory scheme th

Executive Summary On 09th February 2026, the Reserve Bank of India notified the Foreign Exchange Management (Borrowing and Lending) (First Amendment) Regulations, 2026, effecting the most consequential recalibration of India’s External Commercial Borrowings (“ECB”) regime in over a decade. The amendments signal a decisive shift in regulatory philosophy from calibrated control to structural facilitation of cross‑border debt. For Indian corporates, private credit and specia

Introduction India’s insurance intermediary regime has gone through an important structural change.[1] The old model broadly worked on the basis that the certificate of registration had a three-year validity period and renewal fee had to be paid for continuation.[2] The amended law now shifts the system towards a continuing registration model, under which registration remains in force subject to payment of annual fee, unless it is suspended or cancelled by the Authority.[3] T

India's most successful business families share a common discipline: they plan ahead. The same instinct that drives careful capital allocation, governance structure, and succession within an enterprise deserves equal rigour when it comes to personal wealth. Trusts are among the most effective vehicles available for wealth preservation, succession planning, and asset protection in India. But a trust is only as effective as the thinking behind it and the single most consequen

Every great business family has a founding story: the first factory, the first contract, a handshake that grew into an enterprise. What far fewer families have is an equally deliberate plan for what comes next, not the next quarter, but the next generation. If you were to step back from your business today and ask who inherits what, and in what proportion, would the answer reflect your intentions—or the law’s? For most business families in India, the honest answer depends e

The Companies Act, 2013, arrived with ambitions of world-class governance but created a compliance architecture so dense that it triggered over a decade of piecemeal fixes: decriminalisation waves in 2018 and 2020, procedural relaxations during COVID-19, and gradual National Financial Reporting Authority (“NFRA”) empowerment through notifications. The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced in Lok Sabha on March 23, 2026, and now under Joint Parliamentary Committee

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (" IBC" ) was enacted to create a time-bound, creditor-responsive, and value-maximising insolvency framework. In practice, however, the system has been burdened by admission-stage delays, prolonged approval proceedings, liquidation inefficiencies, disputes concerning government dues, and uncertainty generated by frequent judicial elaboration of the statute. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Bill No. 107 of 2025

Introduction Wealth and succession planning in India is often shaped by personal law regimes that determine how property devolves upon death. For Muslim families, inheritance is governed primarily by the principles of Islamic law, as recognised under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 [1] . Unlike testamentary freedom under several other personal law systems, succession under Shariah follows a structured scheme of fixed shares that operate automatically

The term "family office" appears in no Indian statute. It is a market construct that sits at the contested intersection of trust law, corporate governance, taxation, securities regulation, and foreign exchange management. In October 2025, SEBI expressly clarified that it is not examining any dedicated regulatory framework for family offices, a clarification that, paradoxically, underscores precisely why this space demands the most careful legal structuring. The absence of a

When Indian families build wealth globally, the estate is no longer confined to one legal system. A London flat, a Dubai bank account, a Singapore brokerage portfolio, and shares in an overseas holding company may each sit behind different procedural rules, different document standards, and different court processes. From an Indian foreign exchange perspective, a person resident in India may hold, own, transfer or invest in immovable property situated outside India if that pr

India's wealthiest families spend decades constructing empires of equity, real estate, and operating businesses. Yet many reach the point of succession without a valid Will. In such cases, statutory succession rules apply, with the state administering the distribution of assets according to prescribed criteria—such as religious law, familial relationship, and fixed shares, rather than individual intent, commercial considerations, or legacy planning. For High-Net-Worth Indiv

The Bill and Its Author On 14 March 2026, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha introduced the Private Member’s Bill on Asset Tokenisation (Regulation) Bill, 2026 — India's first dedicated legislative proposal to govern blockchain-based real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation. Chadha, an AAP member and the youngest in the Upper House, had been building toward this for months. He first called for a bespoke tokenisation statute in December 2025, citing capital flight, land title chaos, and

Introduction For decades, Indian companies navigating even the most routine regulatory missteps have found themselves queued behind insolvency giants and complex commercial disputes at an already overstretched National Company Law Tribunal (“ NCLT ”). That era, quietly but consequentially, is now drawing to a close. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“ MCA ”) has introduced a major change in the way corporate law compliance will be handled in India. Through a series of of

Background: The Genesis of Press Note 3 (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented wave of global market volatility in early 2020. As equity valuations across Indian listed and unlisted companies fell sharply, the Indian government grew concerned about the risk of opportunistic acquisitions of strategically important Indian enterprises by state-affiliated or state-linked entities from neighbouring countries — in particular, the People's Republic of China. In re

Executive Summary The Government of India has, with effect from 5 February 2026, permitted 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indian insurance companies and insurance intermediaries. This reform, implemented through the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025 and corresponding amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 (FEMA NDI Rules), represents the final and most significant step in a 25-year liberalisati

Introduction The Union Budget 2026 marks a significant milestone for India’s electronics manufacturing sector, introducing a comprehensive policy framework aimed at positioning the country as a global electronics manufacturing powerhouse. Through strategic fiscal incentives, customs duty rationalisation, and the expansion of Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, the government has reinforced its commitment to strengthening domestic manufacturing capabilities while bo