Nishith Desai is an international lawyer and tax consultant and I recently caught up with him to find out about tax, law and strategy in India. This is a two-part interview. In Part-1 he talks about his entertainment law practice (clients include Amitabh Bachchan, Disney, Shekar Kapoor and others) and about Venture Capital in India. Specifically, he talks about the Mauritius route that many Venture Capital firms have used to do business in India.

In Part-2 we talk about venture capital and the various mechanisms and structures through which capital comes into India. What are the challenges of bringing capital into India? What are the various pass-through mechanisms that are available? Nishith set up one of the first trust-based pass-through mechanisms in India between AIG and IF&FS. What does he think of the 2007 budget and Finance Minister Chidambaram’s provisions for VC and investment and pass-through mechanisms in India? We also asked Nishith if there is a bubble in India — you’ll have to tune in to find out what Nishith thinks about that.

0