Sansa Law Desk

The Securities and Exchange Board of India notified the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations, 2026 on 20 January 2026. These amendments, which came into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette, introduce significant changes to disclosure norms, board meeting requirements, material subsidiary definitions, and the regulatory treatment of High Value Debt Listed Entities (HVDLEs). For listed companies, compliance of

The India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed on 27 April 2026 is not merely a bilateral trade deal. It is a strategic move within India's broader Indo-Pacific trade architecture. Understood in the context of India's recent FTA activity, its relationship with multilateral trade frameworks, and the geopolitical dynamics of the region, this agreement carries significance well beyond the tariff schedules and quota allocations that constitute its operational content. India's

Tariff reductions in any free trade agreement are only as effective as the rules that govern their application. The India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, signed on 27 April 2026, includes detailed provisions on rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, technical barriers to trade (TBT), and customs procedures. These provisions determine whether the tariff concessions negotiated by both countries translate into actual trade flows or remain theoretical benef

The India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed on 27 April 2026 has triggered significant concern among apple growers in Himachal Pradesh, India's leading apple-producing state. The FTA grants New Zealand preferential access to the Indian apple market through a tariff rate quota system, and the import window directly overlaps with Himachal Pradesh's domestic marketing season. For a state where apple cultivation sustains approximately 2.5 lakh families and contributes rough

While tariff reductions on goods have dominated the headlines around the India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed on 27 April 2026, one of the most significant chapters of this agreement concerns trade in services. India has made commitments on enhanced market access across 118 service sectors and has offered Most Favoured Nation treatment on approximately 139 sub-sectors. These commitments go substantially beyond India's existing obligations under the World Trade Organi

The India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, signed on 27 April 2026 in New Delhi, covers 95 percent of New Zealand's exports to India with tariff reductions or eliminations. But one category is conspicuously absent from the deal: core dairy products. Milk, cheese, and butter remain entirely outside the scope of this agreement. This is the first time in its history that New Zealand has signed a free trade agreement that completely excludes its flagship dairy sector. India's Da

Agriculture was the most sensitive area in the India-New Zealand FTA negotiations. India needed to protect its domestic farming communities, while New Zealand, one of the world's most efficient agricultural exporters, sought meaningful market access for its key products. The solution adopted in the agreement signed on April 27, 2026 is a Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) system for three specific products: apples, kiwifruit, and Manuka honey. This system allows a defined quantity of im

The India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed on April 27, 2026 includes a dedicated people mobility framework that creates 5,000 Temporary Employment Entry (TEE) visas and 1,000 Work-and-Holiday visas annually for Indian nationals. This is the first time New Zealand has offered a country-specific visa quota of this scale through an FTA. The provisions go beyond simple numerical quotas: they include spousal work rights, student work guarantees, and enhanced post-study wor

One of the most significant provisions of the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed on April 27, 2026, is New Zealand's commitment to facilitate USD 20 billion in private sector investment into India over 15 years. This investment commitment is aligned with the Make in India initiative and is backed by an institutional mechanism: India will establish a dedicated New Zealand Investment Desk to assist New Zealand investors across the full investment lifecycle, from init

Under the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed on April 27, 2026, New Zealand will provide zero-duty access for 100 percent of India's exports from the day the agreement comes into force. This means every Indian product exported to New Zealand, across all tariff lines, will enter the country without paying any customs duty. For Indian manufacturers and exporters, this eliminates tariffs of up to 10 percent that previously applied to key product categories. The compre

India and New Zealand formally signed a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement on April 27, 2026 in New Delhi. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal signed on behalf of India, while Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay represented New Zealand. The agreement, spanning 20 chapters, concludes negotiations that were first launched in 2010, stalled in 2015 after nine rounds, and were revived in March 2025. From revival to conclusion, the deal took just nine months, making i

The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has dismissed an appeal filed by Religare Health Insurance Co. Ltd., holding that an insurance claim cannot be repudiated merely on suspicion of a pre-existing disease in the absence of cogent medical evidence. The order, passed in April 2026, reinforces a principle that has been developing across consumer forums and courts in India: that insurance companies bear the burden of proving that a disease was pre-existing, and

India has consolidated 29 existing labour laws into four unified Labour Codes: the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. While these codes were enacted between 2019 and 2020, the central government targeted April 1, 2026 for full operational implementation across all sectors. The most significant change for employers in 2026 is the 50 percent wage rule

The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was introduced in Lok Sabha on March 23, 2026. The Bill proposes amendments to both the Companies Act, 2013 and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. It covers a wide range of reforms including decriminalisation of minor offences, changes to corporate social responsibility thresholds, recognition of new employee compensation instruments, restructuring of the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), and the creation of a n

The Reserve Bank of India issued the Commercial Banks Credit Facilities Amendment Directions, 2026 on February 13, 2026, comprehensively revising the regulatory framework governing bank lending for acquisitions, loans against securities, and credit facilities to capital market intermediaries. The directions came into force on April 1, 2026. The amendments introduce a new Chapter XIII A dedicated to credit facilities for capital market intermediaries (CMIs), covering stock bro