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Manoj Singh and Nilava Bandhopadhyay give an overview of the new Indian Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act

India is one of the fastest growing major economies, even during the present global economic slowdown. A number of ambitious regulatory reforms have recently been launched by the government, resulting in India ranking 63rd in the ‘Doing Business 2020: World Bank Report’ – a jump of 65 places – since 2014. The growth of the economy, has brought with it a multitude of complex, commercial disputes, making commercial litigation inevitable. Being a global economic powerhouse, and in the interest of integrating with the international business community, Indian laws have repeatedly been amended to keep India on par with legal regimes in other leading commercial law jurisdictions. A testament to this is the recent Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2019, which endeavours to make India a global hub of business by giving effective solutions for dispute resolution through international commercial arbitration. Among others, the amendment seeks to institutionalise and streamline the process of arbitration in India by establishing the Indian Council of Arbitration. The Indian judiciary, too, has played its part by pronouncing a number of judgments aimed at making the country more ‘pro-arbitration’. A catena of judgments – past and recent – have upheld the doctrine of minimal judicial intervention enshrined in section 5 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. This article examines some of the recent legislative changes and judicial changes that seek to transform India into a global commercial litigation hotspot.