1. Evolution of policy governing bike taxi services Commentators are optimistic about India’s market for bike taxi services[1]. Uncertain and differing regulatory approaches at the State level have, however, constrained its growth. Despite this, established players like UberMoto, the bike hailing service launched by Uber, have forayed into this segment, citing the “immense potential forRead more
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Preliminary On 12 November 2018, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”)[1] published the Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for over-the-top (“OTT”) communication services (“Consultation Paper”).[2] This Consultation Paper was deemed necessary due to existing regulatory imbalances between telecom service providers (“TSP”) and OTT service providers, especially since the adoption and usage of OTTRead more
Introduction Hemp, the lesser known cousin of marijuana, has been in the news for all the right reasons lately. The industrial and medicinal uses of the plant have been in the spotlight ever since the United States Senate voted to legalise the cultivation, processing and sale of industrial hemp in June 2018.[1] In IndiaRead more
I. Introduction The Supreme Court’s ban on the sale of alcohol within 500 meters of state and national highways in 2016 caused a significant crunch in the physical retail space available to alcohol vendors in India.[1] Players in the alcohol industry thus began to look to e-commerce as an opportunity for growth. In particular, theRead more
The draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (“Bill”) raises many concerns for businesses – start-ups and established companies alike. Companies will be required to revamp several of their operational practices once the Bill becomes an enforceable law. This post provides an overview of some of the practical concerns raised by the Bill to give aRead more
The Government’s Position on Cryptocurrency While the novelty factor of cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology has not abated since 2009, Indian regulators have only recently begun evaluating the financial and security risks posed by virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. The Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, announced in his 2018 Budget Speech that the government doesRead more
Position of Regulators Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, had first floated the idea of incorporating e-commerce into fuel delivery via a series of tweets on April 21 last year.[i] As per his tweets, door-to-door delivery of petro-products on pre-booking would help consumers save time and avoid long queues at petrolRead more
Technological advancements have enabled applications of drones in diverse areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, crowd and disaster management and journalism. The benefits of drones have been widely acknowledged by various stakeholders in India such as the military, law enforcement agencies, government and the industry.[1] Recently, the Indian Railways revealed that it intended to deploy droneRead more