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2nd
Doing Business in India
Conference Held in Texas
The 2nd India-USA conference
on “Doing Business with
India” was held on 8 and
9 April 2008 in Plano, Texas,
USA. The theme of the conference
was A Practical Guide for Lawyers
and Business Leaders. The conference
was jointly organized by Indo-American
Chamber of Commerce (IACC) and
Center for American and International
Law (CAIL) in cooperation with
ABA Section of Business Law.
The Conference Co-Chairs were
Lalit Bhasin, Chairman of IACC's
Legal Affairs Committee and
Advocate, Bhasin & Co.;
Dr. Anton G. Maurer, CMS Hasche
Sigle, Stuttgart, Germany; and
Sajai Singh, J. Sagar Associates.
The conference was attended
by over 80 people representing
the corporate world, law firms,
advocates and accountants. IACC
mounted a high profile delegation
of 24 prominent lawyers from
India under the leadership of
Bhasin, who, unfortunately,
could not travel due to ill
health. Farokh T. Balsara, President
of IACC also joined the delegation.
Balsara spoke on “Incredible
India Opportunities and Challenges
at the Inaugural session and
Raman Roy, CEO & Founder
of Quatrro BPO Solutions (P)
Ltd., gave the Key Note speech
on “How Global Organizations
can benefit from outsourcing
and the benefits India can bring.”
Other sessions included Investing
in India - covering FDI, investing
in real estate & SEZ's,
contracting in India; rules
of M&A; doing the right
due diligence in India; financing
and taxes, IPR issues; government
support and India and its infrastructure
etc. All the speakers made excellent
presentations with interactive
discussions, the topics and
speakers were very well received
by the participants. Sajai Singh
was the luncheon speaker on
the first day and spoke on “Negotiating
with Indians Cultural things
to do and not to do while doing
business in India” and
Balsara spoke on “India,
an Idea whose time has come”
on the second day.
On the second day, R.K. Chopra,
Secretary General, IACC briefed
the members about IACC and its
role in promoting Indo-US Business;
he also presented the salient
features of the “Indo-US
Business Confidence Index”
which was then released at the
hands of Ms. Banashri Harrison,
Minister (Commerce), Indian
Embassy, Washington D.C. The
index was very well received
by the participants who attended
the conference. A press release
was simultaneously issued in
India and the USA along with
the photographs.
The event received wide coverage
in Economic Times, Business
Standard, The Tribune, The Hindu
and many other newspapers as
also in online newsletters like
Indiaenews.com, Business-standard.com,
Aol.in, Rediff.com, news-yahoo.com,
the US news.com, Smetimes.tradeindia.com,
Newkerala.com, Indiaprwire.com,
Samachar.in etc.
A resource directory covering
messages from Pranab Mukherjee,
Minister of External Affairs;
Kamal Nath, Minister for Commerce
& Industry; Carmine D'Alosiio,
Minister Counselor for Commercial
Affairs, American Embassy and
IACC President was printed and
distributed to all the participants.
The directory also included
details on all the delegates
from India with their profiles
and business interests. Overall
the conference was a big success
which provided a forum for exchange
of views on legal and regulatory
aspects of doing business in
India.
Seminar on Best Global IPR Practices
The U.S. International Trade
Commission estimates U.S. domestic
& foreign sales losses due
to patent and copyright infringements
at between $6 billion and $
8 billion per year. No wonder
that Indian companies, like
their western counterparts before
them, are waking up to the importance
of having inimitable intellectual
property rights, more importantly,
to the threat that its ignorance
may pose. It may take company
years of R&D, toil and sweat
to develop a unique proposition
for its clients. However, a
counterfeiter may have it easy,
he may copy the proposition
without having the need to invest
in anything or to bear any associated
risk that the owner of the idea
or product took. In the wake
of these hard realities the
need for a discussion on the
best IPR practices across the
world was envisaged. The result
was a two-day seminar on Global
Best IPR Practices that the
IndoAmerican Chamber of Commerce
(IACC) organized on 28 and 29
March 2008 in Mumbai.
The seminar commenced with the
welcome address by Farokh Balsara,
President, IACC. Lalit Bhasin,
Chairman, IACC Legal Committee
spoke eloquently on “Why
IP is important for India -
the business aspect”.
Anand Desai, Managing Partner,
DSK Legal & Convener for
the seminar, said that protecting
IPR's are more important than
ever for their commercial value
has been realized by organizations.
He added that IPR laws have
certain peculiarities for enforcement
and encompasses civil and criminal
laws. Seeing their importance
he wondered why IPR laws are
less understood than laws related
to theft, taxes etc? Mustafa
Saifyuddin shared the complexity
& intricacies of the Livon
Vs. P&G, FOLVITE vs FOLV
and other cases with the audience.
Mr Prabuddha Ganguly, CEO, Vision
IPR deliberated on the “Strategies
for Acquiring and Enforcing
Patents in India”. He
noted that industry is undergoing
a major transformation in all
quarters of its value chain
as innovation processes are
getting costlier and product
lifecycles are getting shorter.
The Keynote speaker for the
seminar was Chief Justice of
Mumbai High Court, Swantanter
Kumar. Representing the film
& entertainment industry
was well-known Bollywood actor,
director & producer Aamir
Khan. He stated emphatically
in his speech about the efforts
that goes into making a movie
and how the sense of loss is
greater than monetary once it
is copied and sold in gray market.
He urged the judiciary &
the audience to voice for stronger
IPR laws. T.N. Darwalla of Jehangir
Gulabbhai & Billimoria &
Daruwalla enthralled the audience
with his well-researched presentation
on “Justification for
conferring IP rights”.
He educated the audience about
how IP laws came into being
& also their evolution over
time. Representing the pharmaceutical
industry was Tapan Ray, Director
General, Organisation of Pharmaceutical
Producers of India. In his speech
he stated that no discussion
on IPR is complete without a
discussion on pharmaceutical
patents. Also spoke in the seminar
was Justice Dr D.Y. Chandrachud
and Ravi Kadam, Advocate General.
The seminar was very well attended
by Judges, Lawyers and people
from the pharmaceuticals, IT
& FMCG industries.
The seminar concluded with a
vote of thanks by convener Anand
Desai followed by a networking
dinner.
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