Photo of Aayushi Bindal

Senior Associate in the Public Policy team at the Mumbai office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Aayushi has graduated from Government Law College, Mumbai in 2019. Her experience includes project financing, debt financing transactions across various sectors including renewable energy, ports, warehousing & logistics, health and public policy work on issues pertaining to sustainable development, fintech. She can be reached at aayushi.bindal@cyrilshroff.com

Financial Regulation

Central banks and other financial regulatory authorities are responsible for influencing major investment decisions and resource allocation through their policies. In India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has joined a growing number central banks and financial regulators, who have incorporated climate change into their financial stability mandate seeking to frame prudential regulations and/or direct credit towards sustainable projects. We have analysed the recent developments in our previous posts available here and here.Continue Reading Green Central Banks and Financial Regulators – Are they Legally Mandated?

Climate Finance

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our times. It is a classic example of  a ‘collective action problem’  – one requiring collaborative action between individuals, groups and nations, but where such coordinated action is difficult on account of misaligned incentives. Climate change is likely to result in physical and transition risks that could have implications on stability of the overall financial system as well as the physical safety and financial soundness of banks, financial institutions. Given the potential implications of climate change on monetary policy as well as financial stability, addressing it should be part of the mandate of central banks and financial regulators.Continue Reading Climate Finance for Regulated Entities – Upcoming Trends

The Curious Case of Co- Lending Model

The Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector plays a crucial role in enhancing and ensuring India’s socio-economic development. The sector has gained significant importance due to its contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and exports.[1] A survey by International Labour Organisation indicates that MSMEs account for more than 70% of global employment and 50% of GDP[2].Continue Reading The Curious Case of Co- Lending Model

Rapid Metro Judgment - Reinforcing the Sanctity of Contracts and Public Good

The premise of project financing lies in financing of infrastructure projects undertaken by a special purpose vehicle (“Borrower”), the repayment of which is broadly dependent on the cash flows generated by the projects itself rather than the balance sheet of the Borrower or its promoter/sponsor. The onset of public private partnership (“PPP”) regime in the project financing space in India has been instrumental in implementation of multiple commercially viable projects. The PPP projects are projects based on a contract or concession agreement, between Government or statutory entity on one side and a private sector company on the other side, delivering public utility infrastructure services which can be availed on payment of user charges. It provides an opportunity for private sector participation in financing, designing, construction, operation and maintenance of public sector programme and projects. The licence to develop such projects is given by the statutory authority in various models like build, operate, transfer (BOT), build, develop, operate and transfer (BDOT), build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) and toll, operate and transfer (TOT). In most cases, PPPs combine the best of both worlds: the private sector with its resources, management skills and technology and the public sector with its regulatory actions and protection of public interest[1].
Continue Reading Rapid Metro Judgment: Reinforcing the Sanctity of Contracts and Public Good

NeSL - THE NEW WAY OF ELECTRONIC EXECUTION

 INTRODUCTION

Execution of a document means the placement of signatures by all persons who are required by the character of the instrument to sign the same in order to give it a binding effect under law. It is based on the classic principle of consensus ad idem i.e. two parties entering a contract should agree upon the same thing in the same sense. One amongst the many problems for closure of transactions posed by COVID-19 is the mechanism of execution of documents. The traditional way of executing agreements involved the parties to be physically present at a place and affix the signatures, stamps, common seals, etc., along with paying the necessary stamp duty as prescribed under the relevant stamp laws. However, with the imposition of a nationwide lockdown, travel restrictions and norms of social distancing in place, the manner of execution of documents has had to be reimagined.
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How special are “special equities”- Analysis of invocation of bank guarantee during COVID-19

A pandemic, of the nature which affects the world today, has not visited us during the lifetime of any of us and, hopefully, would not visit us hereinafter either. The devastation, human, economic, social and political, that has resulted as a consequence thereof, is unprecedented. The measures, to which the executive administration has had to resort, to somehow contain the fury of the pandemic, are equally unprecedented. The situation of nationwide lockdown, in which we find ourselves today, has never, earlier, been imposed on the country. The imposition of the lockdown was by way of a sudden and emergent measure, of which no advance knowledge could be credited to the petitioner – or, indeed, to anyone else.” – C. Hari Shankar, J., April 20, 2020.

The above quote aptly sums up the current situation globally and domestically. The COVID-19 outbreak has created a void in terms of performance of commercial contracts and has in many cases left the parties on edge. Through this article, we aim to provide an insight into the orders passed by the judiciary during COVID-19, dealing with an otherwise settled issue i.e. the invocation of bank guarantee.
Continue Reading How special are “special equities”- Analysis of invocation of bank guarantee during COVID-19

The idea of Mumbai Metro - Is the world developing or dying?

The Mumbai metro project (“Metro Project”) was conceptualised to develop an efficient and sustainable urban transport system in the financial capital of the country, involving  a significant investment of USD 2,500 million.[1] Every day some 80,00,000 commuters use the city’s suburban rail system, enabled through more than 2,800 trains a day. The network is severely overcrowded during peak hours when the number of passengers exceed the network’s carrying capacity by more than four times, leading to numerous safety hazards.[2]

Last year witnessed a massive protest for saving the Aarey milk colony located in suburban Goregaon (“Aarey’), a green belt with over 5,00,000 trees, a rarity in the concrete city. The construction of a metro car depot on the flood plains of the Mithi river at Aarey for expansion of metro services in the city received much wrath from environment activists, citizens and even courts for cutting down 2,600 trees overnight. While there is a stay on cutting more trees until the matter is sub-judice, the construction work of the Metro Project was not stopped, until the outbreak of a worldwide pandemic, COVID-19 or Coronavirus.
Continue Reading The Idea of Mumbai metro- Is the World Developing or Dying?