Bilateral Investment Treaty

Bilateral Investment Treaty

PMO asks Union Ministry of Commerce to examine Model text of Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)

  • Bilateral Investment Treaty – It is a reciprocal agreement for according protection to investments by nationals and companies of one State in another State.
  • Model text of BIT – Union Cabinet adopted new Model BIT text in 2015
  • Features of Model BIT 2015
    • “Enterprise” based definition of investment.
    • Contains a negative list, which precludes portfolio investments, interest in debt- securities, intangible rights, etc. from the definition of investment.
    • Protection from expropriation (limiting each country’s ability to take over foreign investments in its territory)
    • Voluntary incorporation of internationally recognized standards of CSR by enterprises operating within territory of each Party.
    • Exhaust local remedies before commencing international arbitration.
  • India’s 1st Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) – With the United Kingdom in 1994.
  • As of 2015, India had signed BITs with 83 countries (of which 74 were in force).
  • Since the release of the model BIT in 2016, India has signed only 4 BITs with Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Taiwan, and Brazil.
  • The Government is negotiating with 37 countries/blocks, and has terminated its older BITs with 77 countries 

Source: The Economic Times


Previous Year Question

With reference to ‘National Investment and Infrastructure Fund’, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. It is an organ of NITI Aayog.
2. It has a corpus of ` 4, 00,000 crore at present.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

[UPSC Civil Service Exam – 2017 Prelims]

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: (d)
Explanation:

Statement 1 is not correct. ‘National Investment and Infrastructure Fund’ was set up under SEBI.
Statement 2 is not correct.
It has a corpus of 40000 crore.


Practice Question

Consider the following statements:

  1. India’s first Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) was with the United Kingdom in 1994.
  2. Model BIT 2015 contains a negative list, which precludes portfolio investments, interest in debt- securities, intangible rights, etc. from the definition of investment.

Which of the statements is/are correct?

 
 
 
 

Question 1 of 1

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *