Blog

Overview Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will form the next Union government in India. In election results announced on 23 May 2019, the BJP and its allies, which together constitute the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), secured 353 out of 542 seats in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament; also called theRead more

1. Central Government At the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control held in October 2014, parties were urged to consider regulating or prohibiting Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (“ENDS”) and restricting or banning advertisement and promotion of ENDS.[1] A national level Roundtable Discussion was held inRead more

This article argues that India’s draft National E-Commerce Policy will harm its startups. An edited version of this article was first published in the Economic Times on Saturday, 16 March 2019. The version published by the Economic Times is also available online, here.   About two months from now, the US government will start to imposeRead more

In February 2017, Whatsapp had announced its plans to introduce a UPI-based payments service in India. Since then, a number of developments have taken place with respect to the payments service, including a discussion on privacy concerns surrounding the application’s use of customer data. This post provides a timeline of all the developments that haveRead more

Since 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) has been making concerted efforts towards improving access to internet in the country. This post provides a chronological overview of the steps taken by TRAI in this direction:   1. July 2016: TRAI initiates discussions on public Wi-Fi in India 1.1 On 13th July 2016, theRead more

On 9th August 2017, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper on Privacy, Security, and Ownership of the Data in the Telecom Sector (Consultation Paper) as a step towards developing a robust data protection framework to safeguard consumer interest. In order to address key data privacy and security issues, the TRAIRead more

The Changing Data Protection Regime in The EU: Why (and What) India Needs to Know The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), approved by the European Parliament on 14 April 2016, has caused a lot of flutter amongst anyone concerned with data protection and privacy regulations. The GDPR comes into force on 25 May 2018, replacingRead more

‘Beyond the Whitepaper’ – ICO marketing methods under the scanner The recent cease and desist order of the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in the matter of the Munchee Inc. initial coin offering, provides guidance on how regulators may view the promotional and marketing methods adopted by offerors while adjudicating the nature of tokens as ‘utility’Read more

Ikigai Law (formerly TRA) comments to the Civil Aviation Requirements for Operation of Civil Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Issued by the Office of the Director General of Civil Aviation The draft Civil Aviation Requirements released in November, 2017 provide the terms and conditions for the ownership and operation of UAs in India. The draftRead more

  Recommendations by TRA for the regulation of virtual currency in India are available here. In brief, our recommendations are:- The Reserve Bank of India (the “Regulator”) should regulate the activities of intermediaries dealing with virtual currencies in order to ensure minimum financial risk and smooth operation of payments and settlements systems. The intermediaries enablingRead more