India's regulatory landscape for financial record-keeping has undergone a quiet but consequential transformation over the past several years. The migration of books of accounts from physical ledgers to cloud-hosted platforms and SaaS-based enterprise resource planning systems has dramatically altered not just how financial data is stored, but where it resides and that question of where has become a matter of acute legal consequence.

Over the life of a company, small amounts quietly accumulate dividends that are never encased, old deposits that are not claimed, shares that sit in forgotten folios. Indian law does not allow these sums to remain with companies indefinitely. Instead, they must eventually move into a central pool called the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), managed by a government authority.

In 2008, Daiichi Sankyo paid USD 4.6 billion for control of Ranbaxy. Five years later, Ranbaxy's US subsidiary pleaded guilty to seven federal felony counts and paid USD 500 million; a decade later, Daiichi was still in the Indian courts enforcing an arbitral award against the sellers.

Employee stock options are designed to attract, incentivise, and retain talent. That is how they are presented to the board and described in offer letters. But the moment a company enters an M&A transaction, an arrangement built by the HR function becomes a term the deal lawyers have to price, and it is very often the last term anyone looks at.

For decades, India operated under an archaic and overly complex web of labour laws making compliance unpredictable and business growth unnecessarily constrained

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs ("MCA") has introduced a transformative regulatory requirement mandating the dematerialisation of securities for private limited companies, marking a clear departure from long-established corporate practices.

India's Global Capability Centre (GCC) story has changed a great deal in recent years. What began as a way to move routine back-office and support work to India has grown into something far more strategic. GCCs today work on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, engineering, product development, research and development, finance and analytics and increasingly sit at the heart of their parent companies' global operations.

India's digital and AI regulatory framework has entered a decisive new phase. On 10 February 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026, introducing a comprehensive regulatory framework specifically addressing Synthetically Generated Information (“SGI”). These amendments, which took effect on 20 February 2026, mark India's response to the proliferation of deepfakes, AI-generated content, and other forms of synthetic media that can deceive users and cause significant harm.

This article examines the regulatory framework governing the acceptance of deposits under the Companies Act, 2013 and the Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 2014. It outlines the avenues available to companies for raising funds through the deposit route and highlights key exclusions within the statutory definition of "deposit".

Alternative investment funds (“AIFs”) are privately pooled investment vehicles which raise funds and invest in accordance with a defined investment policy for the benefit of the investors. AIFs established and operating within India (except in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (“GIFT City”)) are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) under the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012, as amended (“AIF Regulations”), which allow AIFs to be structured as a trust, a limited liability partnership (“LLP”), a company, or a body corporate.

Its profits and income must be applied solely towards the promotion of its stated objects. A Section 8 company is prohibited from declaring or paying dividends to its shareholders.

These events prompted regulators to strengthen governance standards by introducing stricter disclosure norms, enhanced board accountability and greater emphasis on transparency and stakeholder protection.

For decades, the route from private enterprise to the public markets in India has followed a familiar script: an initial public offering, backed by diligence and disclosure, tested through price discovery and completed through admission to trading. That remains the conventional path, and for businesses seeking substantial primary capital and independent price discovery, it is often the right one but it is not the only one.

Stamp duty is one of the oldest forms of fiscal legislation in India, yet it remains one of the most frequently underestimated sources of risk in corporate and commercial transactions. Parties tend to focus on the substantive commercial terms, tax implications, and regulatory approvals, relegating stamp duty analysis to the execution stage.