Kavitha Gupta's blog

Bombay High Court: No benefit to Petitioners seeking Force Majeure owing to Covid-19 outbreak By  LexCounsel Law Offices  on April 15th, 2020 POSTED IN   ASIA PACIFIC  |  CORONAVIRUS/COVID-19  |  CORPORATE LAW Judgment : Standard Retail Pvt. Ltd. V/s M/s. G. S. Global Corp & Ors. with Integral Industries Pvt. Ltd. V/s M/s. G. S. Global Corp. & Ors.; Vinayaga Marine Petro Ltd. & Anr. V/s M/s. G. S. Global Corp. & Ors.; Hariyana International Pvt. Ltd. V/s M/s. Hyundai Corporation & Ors. and Prabhat Steel Traders Pvt. Ltd. V/s M/s. Hyundai Corporation & Ors. [Commercial Arbitration Petition Nos. 404, 405, 406, 407 and 408 of 2020], Forum : Hon’ble High Court of Judicature at Bombay (“ Court ”) Judgment delivered on : April 8, 2020 Act/Law : Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“ Act ”). Ratio : Distribution of steel is an “essential service” during the lockdown period; a force majeure clause, contained in the c...

Commercial contracts often include Force Majeure or hardship clauses setting out requirements for establishing the existence of a Force Majeure or hardship event that prevents or impedes a party’s performance of its contractual duties. The ICC Force Majeure Clause combines the predictability of listed force majeure events with a general force majeure formula which is intended to catch circumstances which fall outside the listed events. The model Hardship Clause provides several options for amendment or termination of the contract when circumstances make performance of a contract untenably onerous.  The ICC Force Majeure and Hardship Clauses balance business people’s legitimate expectations of performance with the harsh reality that circumstances do change to make performance so hard that the contracts simply must change. The new 2020 clauses update the 2003 versions, reflecting the need for simpler presentation and expanded options to suit various companies’ needs. Major inno...

The 6-D model of national culture Geert Hofstede, assisted by others, came up with six basic issues that society needs to come to term with in order to organize itself. These are called dimensions of culture. Each of them has been expressed on a scale that runs roughly from 0 to 100. Dimension maps of the world: Individualism Each dimension has been derived by comparing many, but not all, countries in the world. The findings can be summarized into six world maps of the distribution of that dimension. Of course, in reality there can be quite a bit of within-country variation; these maps should be seen as rough 'climate maps' of culture. Individualism Individualism is the extent to which people feel independent, as opposed to being interdependent as members of larger wholes. Individualism does not mean egoism. It means that individual choices and decisions are expected. Collectivism does not mean closeness. It means that one "knows one's place...