India has turned its attention to comprehensive economic partnership agreements with Singapore, Japan and South Korea after having fixed the loopholes in the much-abused investment treaties with Mauritius and Cyprus.
The government on Monday said it has framed the model Bilateral Investment Treaty to minimise Cairn Energy type of dispute which has resulted in demand for compensation of $5.6 billion from India.
India is again in the limelight of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). An international tribunal has penalised the country earlier this week with a monetary compensation estimated at one billion dollars.
India has lost its arbitration case in an international tribunal against the Bengaluru-based Devas Multimedia Private Ltd. for cancelling the space/satellite contract with the government-owned Antrix Corporation.
As part of ongoing initiatives towards restructuring its bilateral investment treaty regime, Indii aims to minimize the possibility of arbitral tribunals interpreting the treaty provisions vastly different from what the contracting parties originally had in mind.
India is seeking to terminate BITs signed with 57 countries and sign joint interpretative statements with the other 25 treaty states – all an outcome of the country’s new model BIT.