Treelife Resources

A grant letter and employee agreement do different jobs in an ESOP. The grant letter records the options one employee receives under an approved scheme. The employee agreement governs the employment and should point to the scheme instead of restating it. Unlisted Indian companies get into trouble when an offer…

Board and shareholder approval for ESOP decides whether an option grant is valid or only a promise in an offer letter. In India, an unlisted company clears it in a fixed order: a board resolution approving the scheme and calling the meeting, a shareholder resolution passed on a notice that…

FEMA compliance for ESOP under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) 1999 depends on who holds the option and where the issuing company sits. An Indian company that grants options to a person resident outside India reports to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt…

Every rupee that crosses India’s border now does so under a new statute. The Income-tax Act 2025 took effect on 01/04/2026, renumbering the sections, forms and codes that decide how much tax a foreign payment, investment or exit attracts. Cross-border tax advisory India engagements sit before those transactions, not after…

Most regulatory exposure in an Indian company is created on a single day: the day money crosses a border, a structure changes, or a regulated product goes live. The Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999, the Companies Act 2013, SEBI regulations and RBI directions each attach conditions to that event, and…

A grant letter and employee agreement do different jobs in an ESOP. The grant letter records the options one employee receives under an approved scheme. The employee agreement governs the employment and should point to the scheme instead of restating it. Unlisted Indian companies get into trouble when an offer…

Every priced funding round, acquisition and joint venture in India now closes on the back of a legal due diligence report. The report decides more than whether a deal happens. It decides the conditions precedent, the indemnity cap, how much sits in escrow and sometimes the price itself. Legal due…

Employee stock option plans have gone from a listed-company perk to the standard equity instrument for Indian startups raising past seed. Every grant, every exercise and every buyback under that scheme sits on a number that a law somewhere requires to be independently valued. That number changes depending on whether…

A drone manufacturer or operator in India does not register once. The business itself is registered with the Registrar of Companies, the entity is registered with DGCA on the DigitalSky platform, every individual drone gets its own Unique Identification Number, and commercial operations need a separate operator permit. Treat any…

Incorporation gives a foreign-owned Indian subsidiary its Certificate of Incorporation, CIN, PAN and TAN, usually within two to three weeks. It does not give the subsidiary a functioning bank account, and that account is what actually lets the business receive capital, pay vendors and run payroll. Indian banks apply enhanced…

SEBI issued its updated Master Circular for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) on 03 June 2026, consolidating every circular, clarification, and regulatory change issued under the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012 up to 31 May 2026. The document runs 153 pages across 25 chapters and supersedes the previous Master Circular…

The Reserve Bank of India held its benchmark repo rate steady at 5.25% at the June 2026 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, unanimously, under Governor Sanjay Malhotra. This is the third meeting in a row that the rate has stayed put, following a run of 150 basis point cuts between February…

India’s Cabinet approved an amendment to Press Note 3 (PN3) of 2020 in March 2026, and it is generating significant attention across the investment and startup community. Headlines have rushed to label it a sweeping FDI liberalisation. The reality is considerably more targeted. This report breaks down exactly what changed,…

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently announced a major overhaul to the regulatory framework for Angel Funds under the Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) Regulations, 2012. This new framework, introduced in 2025, aims to enhance transparency, improve operational clarity, and encourage investor participation. In this article, we’ll explore…

In a significant move to invigorate India’s startup ecosystem, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), during its board meeting on June 19, 2025, approved substantial changes to the Angel Fund Framework. These revisions are designed to unlock more capital for early-stage companies while simultaneously ensuring enhanced investor suitability…