India: Contracts and Commercial Law

A customer applies for a personal loan through a fintech app. The fintech collects her details and passes them to the partner bank, which approves the loan. The data then moves to a cloud provider that hosts the bank's systems, to a credit analytics vendor that scores the application and, eventually, to a collection agency.

Most foreign companies spend months deciding how to enter India, i.e., whether to set up a subsidiary, form a joint venture with a local partner or open a branch. Far fewer spend the same effort on what happens once the entity exists. Yet it is usually after entry, when the business is running and the relationships are tested, that the gap between what an investor expected and what Indian law actually gives it becomes visible.

The real question is not simply what happens to the shareholders’ agreement on the day of listing, but how an IPO-bound company should handle the rights negotiated with founders and investors throughout its journey.

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Corporate borrowing is an essential component of business operations. Companies may require external funding for working capital, capital expenditure, acquisitions, expansion, restructuring or meeting short-term liquidity requirements. Depending upon the nature and circumstances of the transaction, such funding may be obtained from banks and financial institutions, group companies, shareholders, directors, promoters, employees, investors or other persons.

The GST Council, at its 57th meeting held on 8 October 2026, recommended a package of measures intended to facilitate the export of services from India. For enterprises that deliver services through overseas branches, the most consequential recommendation is the proposed removal of the restriction under which a supply between an Indian establishment and its own foreign branch could not qualify as an “export of services”. The Council has also recommended system-based processing of refunds and a wider eligibility for refund of accumulated input tax credit (“ITC”), both of which bear directly on working capital.

Indian courts have consistently upheld confidentiality obligations while striking down post-employment non-compete clauses, but the enforceability of these protections depends on precise contractual drafting and demonstrable evidence of misuse. This analysis examines landmark cases that define the boundaries between protectable trade secrets and an employee's general skills, revealing what businesses must establish to secure legal protection when confidential information is compromised.

Asymmetric dispute resolution clauses are widely used in cross-border commercial agreements, but their enforceability under Indian law remains unsettled. This article analyses three types of asymmetric clauses, examines how the Singapore and EU Courts have treated them and analysis the conflicting judicial approach in India.

India has slowly moved away from the 29 central labour legislations with consolidation and introduction of the four Labour Codes (which came into force on November 21, 2025) with the objective of modernising and simplifying the regulatory landscape.