The National Law University Odisha, Cutttack successfully organised its first National Seminar on “Emerging Trends in Corporate Laws”. The two day national was graced by participants from across the nation who had come up with the new thoughts to express their ideas and thoughts on the new issues of the corporate laws. SCC Online and Eastern Book Company were the exclusive knowledge partners of the grand event. This national conference provided a platform for students, academicians, scholars, legal luminaries to discuss on the various trends running in the Corporate Sectors and its legal framework. The Conference had sub-divided and categorized the whole discussion into sub-themes which in turn included matters on innovation and entrepreneurship in corporate engagement, effect of global policy change, corporate crime and capital market, schemes of Mergers & Acquisitions, Banking and Project Financing, etc. The conference was held in two-days and was divided into thematic sessions depending upon the list of sub-themes.
Day-1 of the Conference
The Seminar b
egan with an introduction to corporate law and the latest developments in the corporate world by none other than Mr. Abhiraj Krishna, the founding partner of Abhiraj Krishna Associates. He was the perfect person to enlighten the participants upon this topic and to share with them the practical knowledge, as he himself had worked with Khaitan and co., Mumbai office for about 7 years. This ways his talks gave great insights into the minds of all the participants and gave them a premise to discuss and debate further on the said theme.
Then the dais was taken by eminent lawyer and academician Prof. S.V Jogga Rao who introduced the gathering about the current crisis on the corporate regimes and with ways on how to overcome them. He tried focusing on the recent incident in Cuttack of the SUN hospital catching fire because of improper regulation of hospital authorities in Bhubaneswar and several other real estate corporate examples. Thus with a brief introduction on the seminar the first session begun where the organising committee introduced the participants about the rules for the presentation of their papers. The rule were quite simple where in the participants had to present their papers for 7 minutes and the rest 3 minutes were reserved for open house discussion and not abiding these rules would lead to negative marks. 
The first theme of the first session was dealt mainly on the Innovation and entrepreneurship in corporate engagement. Varous papers were presented on the development of the “Make In India” by NDA govt. The effect of the start ups on the Indian economy and its effect on FDI in the economy were also discussed. After a brief lunch break the session again resumed with theme on corporate crimes and capital market. The further topics included: “effect of global policy change, recent changes to the FDI policy and effect on domestic.” Speakers addressed the most pertinent issue i.e. on the effect of the recent broadening of the scope of FDI in India and how it is an emerging one. This session thoroughly introduced the audience about the panama paper scams, whistle blower in the corporate arenas and laws to protect them. The papers in this session were presented by some of the lawyers from the Supreme Court which added colours to their thoughts in the seminar. There were questions cropping up to discuss upon the issues of how 100% FDI in the defence sector going to be a detrimental or a positive aspects in the country? How the change in FDI policy in pharmaceuticals industry going to be helpful?
After the tea break the most important session unfolded with the theme on Issues relating to Securities Market. The second session was chaired by one of the eminent judges who first of all introduced about this topic of securities market.
Then the third session of the first day started off with a bang and it addressed the issue which conglomerates both criminal and corporate laws: “Corporate crime and capital market”. Most of the issues raised in this session were really interesting since there were talks on Investors protection, class-action suits, corporate-criminal liability, healthcare liability of companies, etc. Though it was the last session of the day the papers were presented on varied risks on security markets which the audience enjoyed without any boredom. A majority of the speakers in this session was faculties and academicians from different colleges. The session came to an end where the participants had to proceed for their dinner and then to the accommodations which was provided by the university in different luxurious hotels of the Cuttack city.
Day-2 of the conference
Even on the second day, the faculties and the students of the college were no less enthusiastic to see the presentations of the people and they had come in with a motive of discussing and putting some equally pertinent questions in today’s corporate world. Day 2 started off with where Day 1 had left off; “Issues relating to securities market”. The first session of the second day had intense discussion upon securities market and its legal framework, the concerns over the aspects of securitization laws, etc. Investors Protection being one of the heated discussions in this sector and thus session was really nice and productive.
It continued with a vigour and enthusiasm amongst the participants on theme Corporate Social Responsibility. The session saw some keynote speakers under this theme and also it had academicians from the college itself to speak on some topics This session was filled with a large number of gatherings where the crowd was questioning about the effectiveness of the social responsibility and its futility on the society. The researchers expressed their views on their perceptions and had come up with their ideas on this issue. The second session of the day was the most important session where the issue was on scheme of mergers, acquisitions, banking and project financing.
The final session of the two-day symposium ended with addressing issues on: “Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance” mainly discussing with the aspect of social responsibility in concern. The speakers discussed on various emerging topics in this event and thus the two-day symposium on the emerging trends of Corporate Laws came to an end. The papers in the session were presented by faculties from different national law university on mergers of different companies and birth after their amalgamation. This session also had papers from project financing of the new businesses and birth of start ups through the finance by the sponsors. The delicious lunch was followed by the valedictory ceremony which concluded the seminar with the distribution of prizes and certificates to the candidates which marked the successful conclusion of the 2 days conference on “Emerging trends in Corporate law” at National Law University Odisha, sponsored by SCC Online and Eastern Book Company.
