Prateek Surisetti, Author at Tech Law Forum @ NALSAR

The Indo-Us Solar Panel Dispute and The Glaring Lack of a WTO Framework To Address Environmental Concerns

INTRODUCTION

In the 2016 Indo-US dispute pertaining to Indian schemes relating to solar cells and solar modules (WT/DS456/AB/R), the WTO Appellate Body ruled against India for favouring domestically sourced solar panels over international panels, despite India raising issues relating to energy security and the environment.

Rather than critique the Appellate Body’s reasoning, I have chosen to critique the broader WTO legal framework in so far as it fails to provide sufficient flexibility for member nations to further energy security and environmental objectives. I have chosen the 2016 Indo-US dispute for the purposes of illustration, as it helps in clear identification of the interests that lack sufficient protection in the present regime.

Bare Text Comparison of the Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 with the General Data Protection Rules : Part II – Right to Confirmation and Access

INTRODUCTION TO SERIES

The Personal Data Protection Bill has garnered a fair degree of attention in the last few weeks. For the uninitiated, a brief description of the Bill and its significance can be found here.

The purpose of this series is to analyze the bare text of the Data Principal Rights espoused in the Bill (Chapter VI), namely the Right to Confirmation and Access, Right to Correction, Right to Data Portability and the Right to be Forgotten, in light of the text used in the European legislations to espouse the same values. Each post will deal with each of the above rights.

Net Neutrality And Economics 101 (Part II)

In Part I, I attempted to provide an overview of the ISP market structure, market players and associated economic phenomena. In Part II, we will be discussing the more specific topic of Net Neutrality and its intersection with economics.

Please note that over the course of the ensuing write-up, I have referred to two kinds of fees:

(i) Fee imposed by the ISP on the end-consumers

(ii) Fee imposed by the ISP on the content providers.

So, please pay close attention to the exact nature of the fee throughout the piece.

Network Neutrality Around The World : A Basic Overview

Network Neutrality () refers to a network wherein participants are effectively blind to the nature of data flowing through the network. Another way of defining NN is a network wherein participants are restricted from differential treatment of data flow. Please understand that the definitions provided above are, in cliché speak, two sides of the same coin. Even if a participant can distinguish the nature of data flowing through a network, the participant is considered to be effectively blind, if said participant doesn’t interfere with the data flow. I have discussed the basic concepts and issues surrounding NN here.