“The landscape imprisons their leaders, giving them fewer choices and less room to manoeuvre than you might think.”
Tim Marshall – “Prisoners of Geography”
I. Background: The Origins of Press Note 3
Press Note 3 (2020 Series) (“PN3”), issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (“DPIIT”) on 17 April 2020, was introduced in response to the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its purpose was to protect Indian companies, whose valuations had been significantly depressed, from opportunistic takeovers by investors from countries sharing a land border with India (Land Bordering Countries or “LBCs”, comprising China, including Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, and Afghanistan). The immediate trigger, it is now well-documented, was the People's Bank of China's acquisition of a 1.01% stake in HDFC at a time when the latter's stock price was significantly falling, an episode that crystallised the government's concern about
