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Prabhash Ranjan

Articles by Prabhash Ranjan

India-EU investment treaty: Remove hurdles

An India-EU investment treaty will not only bring benefits to both sides but also demonstrate the combined will towards strengthening a rules-based international order

Overall, India’s new investment treaty practice gives primacy to the State’s rights over the rights of the foreign investors, whereas the EU treaty practice is more balanced. This difference in perspective will be a bone of contention between the two sides. (HT PHOTO)

opinion

Updated on May 09, 2022 07:54 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

To reach full potential of trade pacts, accept investment protection

Stung by several international claims under BITs, India is like a cat who, after sitting on a hot stove, refuses to sit even on a cold stove

India should come out of its shell and accept investment protection as part of its broader economic commitments under international law. This will enable India to realise the full potential of these CECAs. (AFP)

opinion

Updated on Apr 04, 2022 08:09 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

In war-torn Ukraine, has international law failed us once again?

The so-called weakness of international law is a tale of the feebleness of global institutions and countries mandated to implement the law.

Several tools can be used to hold Russia accountable or inflict costs for its unlawful behaviour. (REUTERS)

opinion

Published on Mar 02, 2022 07:28 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

A non-protectionist trade policy is what India needs

It should include pro-market reforms, not pro-business reforms that are reminiscent of India’s “stigmatised capitalism”

In the last few years, the official narrative on FTAs has been that they led to India’s de-industrialisation in some sectors. (Bloomberg file photo/Representative image)

opinion

Published on Feb 25, 2022 06:47 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

India’s poor compliance with investment awards

The decision of the Canadian court sullies India’s reputation globally as an attractive investment destination and spooks foreign investors

Since 2011, approximately 20 BIT arbitrations have been initiated against India before different investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals (Shutterstock)

opinion

Updated on Jan 12, 2022 07:39 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

The crisis in SAU is a symbol of the crisis of SAARC

The future of SAARC and specialised bodies such as SAU is directly proportional to India’s political interest. Notwithstanding Pakistan’s recalcitrant attitude, SAARC serves India’s interests

The roots of this economic debacle lie in the political dysfunctionality of SAARC, especially in the last five years (Getty Images)

opinion

Updated on Dec 04, 2021 10:19 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

For vaccine equity, the TRIPS waiver is crucial

The EU’s effort to protect the IP standards of pharma corporations signals the triumph of corporate profits over the health of the poor

A health worker administers a dose of Covid-19 vaccine to a beneficiary at a community centre, Gurugram, October 2021 (Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

opinion

Updated on Nov 11, 2021 05:20 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan and Sakshi Ranjan

India should be open to the WTO investment facilitation pact

India would do well to actively take part in these negotiations and try to shape the investment facilitation agreement in a manner that reflects its concerns

India’s apprehensions stem from WTO’s checkered past on investment (AFP)

opinion

Updated on Oct 22, 2021 05:44 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

The WTO threat to Indian agriculture’s MSP regime

Procurements done for food security purposes should be exempted from inclusion in Aggregate Measurement of Support, provided such food grains are procured transparently. India, as part of G-33, should bargain hard for this at the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference later this year

India can move away from price-based support to its farmers to income-based support, which will not be trade-distorting under the Agreement on Agriculture, provided income support is decoupled or not linked to production. However, given the enormous political salience attached to the MSP-based procurement regime, underlined by the ongoing farmer agitations, it is simply not possible for India to dump or even dilute the current system. (HT archive)

opinion

Updated on Sep 21, 2021 05:51 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

On trade, India has legal instruments to hold Afghanistan accountable

Since the Taliban now claims to represent Afghanistan at national and international forums, it is under a legal duty to comply with all the international law obligations that bind Afghanistan

An Afghanistani truck enters the integrated check post in Attari near Amritsar on the first day of the resumption of trade between India and Afghanistan on May 28, 2020. (File photo)

opinion

Updated on Sep 02, 2021 04:23 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Burying the ghost of retrospective taxation

Finally, it seems, good sense has prevailed. The tax bill states that the amendment to Section 9(1)(i) will not apply to indirect transfers of Indian assets made on or before May 28, 2012. In simpler terms, the law on taxing the gains arising out of indirect transfer of Indian assets shall be prospective

Representational image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

opinion

Updated on Aug 06, 2021 06:54 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Don’t turn the clock back on investment norms

India adopted measures aimed at liberalising foreign investment, both direct and institutional, to overcome the problem of over-dependence on debt 3 decades ago

Former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao talking to his Cabinet colleague Manmohan Singh in 1994. (Sanjay Sharma / HT Archive)

Opinion

Updated on Jul 08, 2021 07:49 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Voluntary licensing of Covaxin will boost vaccine production

India is known globally for the vigour of its pharmaceutical sector built over several decades. It would be extremely tragic if the government fails to channelise this prowess to save precious Indian lives.

View of a vial of India's COVAXIN vaccine against COVID-19 at the public hospital in Villa Elisa, Paraguay, on April 14, 2021. (Photo by NORBERTO DUARTE / AFP) (AFP)

opinion

Published on May 04, 2021 05:52 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Due to its 2012 blunder, India’s Cairn challenge at The Hague is likely to fail

To put an end to this dispute, India should comply with the ISDS ruling and undo the horrendous error made in 2012 by making the amendment in the Income Tax Act prospective in nature.

The dispute arose when the Indian government, armed with the retroactive 2012 amendment in the Income Tax Act, demanded that Cairn pay taxes on the alleged capital gains it made due to a 2006 internal corporate restructuring (Hindustan Times)

opinion

Published on Mar 30, 2021 07:14 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

India’s retrospective taxation blunder is still extracting heavy costs

In endeavouring to extract revenue through retroactive taxation that damages investor sentiment in the long run, India is being penny-wise and pound-foolish

The tribunal reasoned that India’s decision to retroactively apply the law, without a specific justification, created a new tax burden on a transaction that was not taxable at the time it was carried out, ie. in 2006(Shutterstock)

analysis

Updated on Jan 07, 2021 07:20 AM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Suspend international IP, patent obligations on Covid-19 vaccines

Coordinated State action at the global level that temporarily suspends the application of relevant international law to Covid-19 vaccines and drugs will be an important step in fighting the pandemic.

A health care worker of the free influenza vaccination programme holds a flu vaccine inside a tram, Vienna, Austria, October 1, 2020.(REUTERS)

analysis

Updated on Oct 26, 2020 08:59 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Restricting Chinese imports will not be easy

India could revoke the Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan, but may not be able to do so with China

The quantum of trade between India and China will constrain the former from imposing sanctions on the latter(Bloomberg)

analysis

Updated on Jun 20, 2020 01:11 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Covid-19: Why India doesn’t need to worry about investor-State dispute settlement claims

The Indian executive, however, must remain conscious of such a possibility and ensure that their emergency regulatory actions are not arbitrary, discriminatory or disproportionate, and are adopted in good faith following due process.

If a claim of indirect expropriation is brought against India, the government can argue that the measures adopted to combat the pandemic are a part of the State’s police powers. Many Investor-State Dispute Settlement tribunals have held that states do not violate their BIT obligations when they act in the exercise of their police powers(Biplov Bhuyan/HTPhoto)

analysis

Updated on Apr 01, 2020 01:29 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

The US is being unfair to India on trade. Resist it

The decision to strip India of its ‘developing country’ status, based on a unilateral, arbitrary criteria, is wrong

India put up a strong paper at the WTO last year to prove its ‘developing’ status(PTI)

analysis

Updated on Feb 21, 2020 04:53 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

A domestic law may not protect foreign investments in India

India should not shy away from being held accountable under international law for its sovereign actions

The central government is reportedly working on a new law to safeguard foreign investment.(PTI)

analysis

Published on Feb 04, 2020 07:19 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

‘Preemptive strikes’ is a problematic term in international law

If Balakot was ordered to stop Pakistan, the correct term for India to use was ‘anticipatory self defence’

Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Mukund Naravane in New Delhi, 2019(ANI)

analysis

Published on Jan 05, 2020 07:48 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

CAA violates international customary law. Review it

India must honour its international legal obligations and develop a national refugee protection framework

The CAA makes India’s violation of the non-refoulement principle manifest(Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

analysis

Updated on Dec 18, 2019 12:44 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

How the Left and liberals ceded nationalism to BJP | Analysis

Freedom fighters used nationalism to unite India. But progressive parties later viewed it as a negative force

Over the last few decades, the Left and liberals almost abandoned the discourse on nationalism. They talked of international solidarity of the working class, international sisterhood, concerns of subalterns; but this discourse was not embedded in nationalism(Sanket Wankhade/HT PHOTO)

analysis

Updated on Oct 06, 2019 08:32 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

Our freedom fighters did not fight for a parochial view of nationalism

They chose civic nationalism as against ethnic and belligerent nationalism. Indians must strive to protect it

Unlike Pakistan, independent India rejected the two-nation theory and, thus, ‘cultural homogeneity’(Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

analysis

Updated on Aug 14, 2019 07:51 PM IST

ByPrabhash Ranjan

ICJ’s Kulbhushan Jadhav verdict: What it means for India and Pakistan

It’s the second rebuke to Islamabad in one week. The international community will watch its next steps

The ICJ agreed with India and concluded that Pakistan breached Article 36 of the Vienna convention. Pakistan failed to inform Jadhav without delay of his rights under the convention(AFP)

analysis

Updated on Jul 18, 2019 09:19 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByPrabhash Ranjan

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Prabhash Ranjan

An India-EU investment treaty will not only bring benefits to both sides but also demonstrate the combined will towards strengthening a rules-based international order

Stung by several international claims under BITs, India is like a cat who, after sitting on a hot stove, refuses to sit even on a cold stove

The so-called weakness of international law is a tale of the feebleness of global institutions and countries mandated to implement the law.

It should include pro-market reforms, not pro-business reforms that are reminiscent of India’s “stigmatised capitalism”

The decision of the Canadian court sullies India’s reputation globally as an attractive investment destination and spooks foreign investors

The future of SAARC and specialised bodies such as SAU is directly proportional to India’s political interest. Notwithstanding Pakistan’s recalcitrant attitude, SAARC serves India’s interests

The EU’s effort to protect the IP standards of pharma corporations signals the triumph of corporate profits over the health of the poor

India would do well to actively take part in these negotiations and try to shape the investment facilitation agreement in a manner that reflects its concerns

Procurements done for food security purposes should be exempted from inclusion in Aggregate Measurement of Support, provided such food grains are procured transparently. India, as part of G-33, should bargain hard for this at the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference later this year

Since the Taliban now claims to represent Afghanistan at national and international forums, it is under a legal duty to comply with all the international law obligations that bind Afghanistan

India adopted measures aimed at liberalising foreign investment, both direct and institutional, to overcome the problem of over-dependence on debt 3 decades ago

India is known globally for the vigour of its pharmaceutical sector built over several decades. It would be extremely tragic if the government fails to channelise this prowess to save precious Indian lives.

To put an end to this dispute, India should comply with the ISDS ruling and undo the horrendous error made in 2012 by making the amendment in the Income Tax Act prospective in nature.

In endeavouring to extract revenue through retroactive taxation that damages investor sentiment in the long run, India is being penny-wise and pound-foolish

Coordinated State action at the global level that temporarily suspends the application of relevant international law to Covid-19 vaccines and drugs will be an important step in fighting the pandemic.

India could revoke the Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan, but may not be able to do so with China

The Indian executive, however, must remain conscious of such a possibility and ensure that their emergency regulatory actions are not arbitrary, discriminatory or disproportionate, and are adopted in good faith following due process.

The decision to strip India of its ‘developing country’ status, based on a unilateral, arbitrary criteria, is wrong

India should not shy away from being held accountable under international law for its sovereign actions

If Balakot was ordered to stop Pakistan, the correct term for India to use was ‘anticipatory self defence’

India must honour its international legal obligations and develop a national refugee protection framework

Freedom fighters used nationalism to unite India. But progressive parties later viewed it as a negative force

They chose civic nationalism as against ethnic and belligerent nationalism. Indians must strive to protect it

It’s the second rebuke to Islamabad in one week. The international community will watch its next steps

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