A progressive India has leapfrogged in the ease of doing business rankings says Amitabh Kant, CEO – Niti Aayog A progressive India has leapfrogged in the ease of doing business rankings says Amitabh Kant, CEO – Niti Aayog
Khaitan & Co celebrates 106 years of journey as
full service law firm
§ Marks significant milestone in the national capital
New Delhi,
November 13, 2017 – Khaitan & Co, one of the largest Indian law firms
with a modern and cutting-edge practice, has marked 106 years of serving
clients in the country after beginning its journey in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta)
and establishing the New Delhi office in 1970.
“Our growth over the years has been aligned with
the India growth story. Over the last 10 years, the Firm has grown from 80
lawyers to over 500+ lawyers and has attracted some of the best legal talent
from India and overseas. This growth can be attributed to the Firm’s
institutional approach and the emphasis on teamwork and collaboration.” said Mr
Haigreve Khaitan, Partner at Khaitan & Co. “After Delhi, we opened our
Bengaluru office in 1991 and Mumbai office in 2001. The Firm has emerged as a one-stop
shop for a wide range of legal services, including in several emerging sectors
like defence, infrastructure, pharma, real estate, fin-tech, securities and
insolvency resolutions.”
Mr Khaitan was speaking at a gala evening reception
on 10 November at The Taj Mansingh, New Delhi attended by Mr Amitabh Kant, CEO
of Niti Aayog, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Law and Justice, and Electronics
and Information Technology, Mr P. Chidambaram, former Finance Minister amongst several
of the Firm’s Clients, former judges, bureaucrats and eminent lawyers.
The event started with an hour-long panel
discussion wherein Mr Amitabh
Kant, who was one of the panellists discussed the progress that the Indian
government had made in improving its ranking to the 100th spot as
part of the World Bank’s ranking of countries on the ‘’Ease of Doing Business’’.
Mr Kant said that India has a responsive government
which has undertaken radical reform like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for
uniform taxation across the country. “A lot of rules and procedures have been
dismantled so that the private sector can thrive and India can grow rapidly.
Special purpose vehicles should be created to cut delays in development works
like construction of roads and highways, or mining.” These SPV’s should take all the required
approvals. He also stated that India still has a lot of work to do on Construction
Permits, Registering Permits, Trading across border and Enforcement of
Contracts.
The other panellists were Mr Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice
Chairman of Info Edge (India) Limited which owns Naukri.com, Mr Puneet Dalmia,
Managing Director of Dalmia Cements and Mr Bharat Anand, Partner at Khaitan
& Co. The event was moderated by Mr Gurcharan Das, author,
commentator and former CEO of Procter & Gamble India.
Mr Bikhchandani said there is need to reduce
complexities so that India can move up further in rankings of business
friendliness.
Mr Dalmia said the Mines and Minerals (Development and
Regulation) Act was amended after more than 50 years to bring in transparency,
balance environmental and business concerns, and convert mineral resources into
GDP growth.
“The objective of Transparency
and environmental concerns have been achieved with stellar success in the last
24 months. However, converting mineral resources into GDP growth still remains
a slow process. The main bottleneck in converting minerals into productive
assets quickly is acquiring land and getting regulatory clearances in a timely
manner.”
’Mr Anand said the situation around enforcement of
contracts in India has improved largely due to the changes in the arbitration
act. He contrasted the White Industries BIT position with the outcome of the
NTT Docomo-TATA case. Sanjeev Kapoor (Partner) from Khaitan & Co had
successfully represented NTT Docomo in the landmark USD 1.17 billion LCIA award
and also helped in enforcement proceedings in India in record time. The Firm led
by Daksha Baxi (Executive Director) also successfully hand held NTT Docomo
through the whole process of filing and successfully obtaining the withholding
tax certificate.
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