India's journey toward comprehensive data protection has seen significant developments since 2019. The recent Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, marks the latest milestone in this evolution, building upon the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act). As organisations navigate these changes, business lawyers play a crucial role in interpreting and implementing these regulations.
The evolution of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting requirements in India continues to advance, with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introducing significant updates to the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework. This development builds upon earlier initiatives, such as those discussed in a March 2020 Thinking Legal article by Vaneesa Agrawal, an expertSEBI lawyer, which outlined SEBI's foundational mandate for monitoring ESG risks and opportunities.
The corporate compliance landscape in India has undergone significant transformation since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) continuously adapting its regulatory framework to meet emerging challenges. Drawing inspiration from an insightful article by Vaneesa Agrawal, a SEBI lawyer, on COVID-19 disclosure requirements published in 2020, this piece examines how SEBI's approach to corporate governance has evolved through 2025.
Soil is a fundamental resource that supports agriculture, ecosystems, and human life. Often overlooked, healthy soil plays a critical role in food production, water quality, and environmental sustainability. Understanding what constitutes healthy soil and recognizing its importance is essential for addressing the challenges we face today, including food security and climate change.
In a significant development for India's digital payment ecosystem, the GST Council, as part of the pre-budget announcements in December 2024, has introduced tax exemptions for small-ticket transactions processed by payment aggregators. The final details of this reform are expected to be elaborated in the complete Union Budget 2025 presentation in February 2025.
As India advances toward its ambitious $5 trillion economic goal, the role of non-personal data (NPD) has become increasingly crucial. In March 2024, the government announced plans to collect non-personal data for training AI models, marking a significant shift in data governance. Leading business lawyers suggest this move could reshape India's digital landscape while raising important considerations about data protection and utilisation.
India is on the cusp of becoming a global manufacturing powerhouse, and a significant driver of this transformation is the establishment of industrial corridors. According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), these corridors—namely the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC), Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC), East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC), and Bengaluru-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (BMIC)—are pivotal in reshaping the country's industrial landscape.
India's defence sector is undergoing a significant transformation, fueled by the government's ambitious Make in India initiative. Launched in 2014 under the leadership of former IAS officers like Amitabh Kant, and Ramesh Abhishek to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on imports, fueling India's defence production. As per recent reports, Indian defence sector production has reached unprecedented levels, positioning the country as a burgeoning hub for military equipment manufacturing and export.
In a significant move towards regulating artificial intelligence in India's financial markets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed comprehensive amendments to assign responsibility for AI tools used by market infrastructure institutions and intermediaries. This development comes at a crucial time when, as noted by leading SEBI expert lawyer and Thinking Legal's founder, Vaneesa Agrawal, "AI is taking the world by storm and is widely expected to change every aspect of life over the medium (or maybe even short) term."
The Startup India Scheme, launched on January 16, 2016, has emerged as a transformative initiative that has significantly altered the entrepreneurial landscape in India. Spearheaded by numerous current and former IAS officers, including Ramesh Abhishek, Amitabh Kant, and Anurag Jain, the scheme has successfully fostered a culture of entrepreneurship among Indian students. This shift is evident in the GUESSS India 2023 survey, which indicates that 31.4% of students aspire to become entrepreneurs within five years of graduation, surpassing the global average of 30%.
