Making Sense of Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (I)

By Kavaljit Singh | Commentary | November 28, 2023

Hectic parleys are currently underway to incorporate a new agreement on investment facilitation at the World Trade Organization after 112 WTO members concluded text negotiations on an Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) on 6 July 2023. WTO members participating in the talks on IFDA hope that the proposed agreement will reach another important milestone…

India’s Experience with Investment Treaty Disputes and Related Damages

By Tathagata Choudhury | Briefing Paper # 62 | August 17, 2023

 India is an attractive destination for foreign investment (among the top 10 investment-importing countries) and is increasingly growing as an outward investor (among the top 20 investment-exporting countries). Since its economy opened up, India has been a willing participant in the international investment treaty regime. It signed its first bilateral investment treaty…

What Ails the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments Beyond the DSSI?

By Biswajit Dhar | Briefing Paper # 61 | July 7, 2023

One of the more significant tasks before the G20 countries is to find a lasting solution to the problem of external debt in developing countries, in particular low-income countries, whose vulnerabilities have exacerbated since the onset of the COVID-induced downturn. At the urgings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the…

The 2023 U.S. Regional Banking Crisis is Far from Over

By Kavaljit Singh | Briefing Paper # 60 | May 9, 2023

On May 1, 2023, U.S. regulators seized troubled First Republic Bank (FRB) and promptly sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to the country’s biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase, in a bid to stem further turmoil in the banking sector. Despite obtaining a $30 billion lifeline from 11 of the country’s largest…

Does the Multilateral Trading System Suffer from a Legitimacy Deficit?

By Biswajit Dhar | Special Report | March 7, 2023

In its seven and a half decades of existence, questions regarding the legitimacy and democratic credibility of the multilateral trading system have often been asked on two fundamental grounds. The first stems from the questions regarding its internal legitimacy, essentially the transparency and inclusiveness of its decision-making processes. Questions regarding transparency have become more…