Photo of Ritika Rathi

Ritika Rathi

Partner in the Corporate Practice at the Delhi office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Ritika practice covers diverse areas of corporate commercial laws including advising on inbound and outbound investments, joint ventures, private equity, business acquisition and restructuring, along with corporate and regulatory advisory. She can be reached at ritika.rathi@cyrilshroff.com

Contact:Read more about Ritika Rathi
From Burden to Benefit: Relief for Businesses Dealing in Pre-Packaged Commodities

Summary: This article deals with the relaxation granted by the Department of Consumer Affairs on September 18, 2025 to businesses dealing with pre-packaged commodities affected by recent GST rate changes. The advisory allows businesses to voluntarily affix revised MRP stickers on unsold packages manufactured before September 22, 2025, without obscuring the original MRP. This affixation of revised stickers is purely optional and addresses compliance burdens created when GST rate changes affect MRP declarations. Additionally, the compliance requirements have been simplified by waiving newspaper advertisement mandates and requiring only circulars to dealers and retailers with copies to the regulatory authority.Continue Reading From Burden to Benefit: Relief for Businesses Dealing in Pre-Packaged Commodities

LSF – The Journey

The uniform ‘late submission fee’ (“LSF”) is a relatively new concept in the Indian exchange control regime. The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (“FEMA”), as originally introduced by the legislature, did not envisage the concept of LSF. Resolving a delay in reporting of equity or debt transactions under FEMA would necessarily require compounding of offences before the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”). Given that compounding is not the most time efficient or simple process, it implied that even for insignificant or genuine delays, parties would have to undergo several steps, thus making the system clogged with late filings and filings becoming more cumbersome than they needed to be.Continue Reading Uniformisation of Late Submission Fee under FEMA: A One Stop Shop?

The Epidemic Ordinance, 2020 - An ‘opportune’ armour for the protectors

The world is grappling with an unknown virus that has escalated to a global pandemic in no time. At the very forefront of this battle against the unknown, are the medical healthcare professionals who have been working relentlessly to treat the rising number of patients across the globe, sometimes even without adequate protective gear[1]. Therefore, it is disheartening when one comes across news regarding them being subject to unprovoked violence from the public[2] in this time of crisis. The need to protect these frontline healthcare professionals was felt strongly by the Indian government in order to ensure seamless treatment of patients during the current pandemic. With these objectives in mind, the President of India on April 22, 2020, promulgated the Epidemic Diseases Amendment Ordinance 2020 (“Amendment Ordinance”), to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 (“Epidemic Act”).
Continue Reading The Epidemic Ordinance, 2020: An ‘opportune’ armour for the protectors?

Hovering over us - Drones in civil use

Drones are the game changing marvel of technology representing boundless possibilities for innovation and utilisation. In the initial days, they were primarily used by governments across the world as a way to supplement their militaristic operations. However, given that the technology has immense capability for application in the civil sphere, different jurisdictions have already come up with frameworks to regulate the subject matter.

Drones can indeed be used for multiple purposes, including, (a) monitoring and inspection of infrastructure like railways[1]; (b)  improvement in agriculture through crop and soil health monitoring system[2]; (c) ‘general use’ by civilians; (d) media and entertainment; (e) conservation of wildlife[3], etc.  The multi-use capability of drones has become even more apparent in light of the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. Authorities are increasingly opting to use them for monitoring the situation as well as ensuring contactless operations and services to the public at large.

With use of drones set to only increase over time, it is important that such uses be regulated in an effective way to ensure that the right to privacy is respected, and the safety and security at large is not compromised.
Continue Reading Hovering over us – Drones in civil use

Amidst much anticipation, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion released Press Note 3 (PN3) in March of 2016 (now incorporated in the Consolidated FDI Policy dated June 7, 2016) to clarify its stand on the subject of foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce. This post is an attempt to highlight certain issues arising out of PN3 in relation to the use of the term ‘services’, which may not only impact the e-commerce players but may also extend to other businesses which utilize electronic platforms.

Through the release of PN3, the Department clarified its stance on two key aspects: (a) FDI is permitted in the ‘marketplace model of e-commerce’ under the automatic route (i.e., without prior approval); and (b) FDI is prohibited in the ‘inventory based model of e-commerce.Continue Reading The E-commerce Press Note – Some Unanswered Questions