In a recent address at the Indo-French Legal and Business Conference, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant underscored the significant strides India has made in creating a business-friendly legal system, actively promoting the country as a reliable trade partner on the global stage. The CJI's visit to France, set against the backdrop of the India-France Year of Innovation 2026, emphasized the necessity of robust cross-border dispute resolution mechanisms to foster innovation-driven economic cooperation between the two nations.
Highlighting India's transformation from a traditionally litigation-centric approach to one that prioritizes Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), CJI Surya Kant pointed to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996 and its subsequent amendments as evidence of India's alignment with global standards. These amendments, he noted, ensure party autonomy, reduce judicial interference, and retain oversight to protect fairness and integrity. He stated that India's arbitration regime is forward-looking, consistent, predictable, and designed to make arbitration the default mechanism for commercial dispute resolution.
The CJI also referenced the Supreme Court's pro-arbitration stance, which discourages technical objections and upholds the sanctity of arbitration agreements. Arbitral awards from New York Convention countries, including France, are enforceable in India as court decrees, boosting foreign investor confidence.
India has implemented investor-friendly policies, with most sectors open to 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) through the automatic route. FDI inflows have risen steadily, from USD36.05 billion in 2013-14 to USD81.61 billion in 2024-25. In the first six months of FY 2025-26, FDI inflows stood at USD50.36 billion, signaling sustained growth and increased investor confidence.
The Union Budget 2026-27 is expected to show a comprehensive roadmap towards continued growth, innovation, and new opportunities, that can sustain inflation and balances the economic and geo-political demands in the current scenario. It is anticipated that the business-friendly initiatives will be introduced by the Government making India fundamentally strong, self-reliant and globally competitive. The key sectors in focus for potential support include railways, infrastructure, manufacturing, automobiles, defence, electronics, MSME, renewable energy and AI among others.
The India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will come into force in 2027. The FTA provides measures to tackle non-tariff barriers through greater regulatory cooperation, transparency, streamlined customs, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) procedures. The FTA supports intellectual property protections provided under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and is expected to facilitate cooperation in critical areas like artificial intelligence, clean technologies etc.
CJI Chandrachud's efforts to promote India's legal system internationally are not new. In October 2024, he visited Bhutan to strengthen judicial cooperation between the two countries, discussing mutual legal assistance, capacity-building programs, and academic exchanges. During his visit, CJI Chandrachud emphasized the importance of strengthening legal education and building bridges between law schools across borders.
