India: International Trade & Investment

In April 2020, amid the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government introduced Press Note 3 (“PN3”) through the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (“DPIIT”). The policy was a considered response to a specific and legitimate concern: that investors from land-border countries, China in particular, might exploit the economic distress of the pandemic to acquire stakes in Indian companies at depressed valuations. India was not alone in this assessment. Australia, France, Canada introduced comparable investment screening measures around the same time.

The Strait of Hormuz is the only maritime passage out of the Gulf that a fifth of the world's LNG and seaborne oil trade crosses to reach its destination.

In a measured yet commercially significant move, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry through the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)...