Pune land deal: Amadea LLP sues to cancel a sale deed alleging government ownership and facilitation by a sub registrar.
Amadea Enterprises LLP has filed a civil suit under Section 31 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 seeking cancellation of a sale deed for 40 acres in Mundhwa on the basis that the land belongs to the government and could not be sold; the complaint alleges the power of attorney holder executed the sale knowing of government title and that a sub registrar facilitated the deed processing.

Jerai Fitness Buyback Offer lets gyms trade old equipment for up to 50% off new full-set Jerai setups.
Jerai Fitness Limited will run a Buyback Offer from January 1-26, 2026 allowing gyms to exchange old equipment of any brand and condition for up to 50% off new full-set Jerai equipment; exchanged items will be collected before delivery, carry Jerai's normal warranty, and the offer excludes cardio, attachments and accessories. Separately, the company is proposing an initial public offering subject to requisite approvals and market conditions and has filed a draft red herring prospectus.

UK Paints to raise direct stake in Berger Paints via internal amalgamation; transaction claimed exempt from open offer rules.
UK Paints (India) Private Limited will increase its direct shareholding in Berger Paints from 50.09% to 64.57% by acquiring 16,87,88,138 shares from a wholly owned subsidiary under a scheme of amalgamation as a nil-consideration internal restructuring aimed at rationalising group structure and reducing legal entities and jurisdictions, and the transaction is stated to be exempt from open offer requirements under securities regulations.

Codeine syrup trafficking crackdown leads to seizures, arrests and charges under narcotics and fraud laws.
Crackdown on illegal diversion of codeine-based cough syrup led to seizures and arrests after discovery of cartons with scratched batch numbers suggesting illicit manufacture; suspects have been charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Separate arrests involved operators of sham pharmaceutical firms using forged Aadhaar cards and false licences, with bank accounts showing large transactions; those accused face charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and NDPS provisions as part of a wider state-wide investigation into regulated drug diversion.

ICSI National Awards celebrate corporate governance excellence; winners named and new compliance guidance resources unveiled.
ICSI presented its 25th National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance, awarding listed and unlisted companies across size categories and conferring a Lifetime Achievement Award on Mr. R. C. Bhargava. Additional awards covered CSR excellence, secretarial audit, PCS firm performance and business responsibility. The Institute released governance and compliance resources including a Guidance Note on Third Party Assurance (BRSR Core), Guidance Notes on Board and General Meetings, an MSME Ready Reckoner 2.0, a handbook on labour codes and a Secretarial Audit Manual.

Viksit Bharat governance reforms aim to simplify laws, deepen financing, and deploy AI as an assistant under human oversight.
Emphasis on strengthening financing architecture by empowering states and local bodies, deepening corporate bond markets, expanding digital and collateral-free lending, and catalysing private investment to ensure timely capital access; coupled with calls for simpler, predictable laws, non-intrusive data-driven compliance, reduced regulatory costs, faster dispute resolution and trust-based administration. AI is endorsed as a governance assistant for detection and analysis but must remain subject to human judgment and accountability.

TGI Fridays opens in Gurugram as franchise rights shift to Feastary, with plans for 15 North India outlets and airport expansion.
Bistro Hospitality, as master franchisee, and Feastary Hospitality LLP announced a transfer of North India rights across nine states to Feastary, the opening of a flagship TGI Fridays at Ambience Mall Gurugram, and plans for three immediate openings with a target of 15 restaurants in North India within three years; Bistro retains airport rights and both parties commit to operating to international standards while localising offerings.

Corporate social responsibility must include environmental duty; companies must fund species recovery and follow operational restrictions.
CSR must include environmental responsibility, with CSR funds constituting fulfilment of the constitutional duty to protect the environment and a statutory corporate obligation. Directors' fiduciary duties extend to the environment and community. Where corporate activities threaten endangered species, the polluter pays principle obliges companies to fund species recovery and direct CSR toward in situ and ex situ conservation. Applied to the Great Indian Bustard, revised priority conservation areas and strict restrictions on new turbines, large solar plants, expansion of solar parks, and overhead lines (except through identified corridors) were imposed to prevent extinction.

Developers secure Neopolis Plot 15 at Rs. 151.25 crore/acre; master planning and statutory clearances pending for The Cascades Neopolis project.
GHR Infra, Lakshmi Infra, and Urbanblocks Realty, through their joint consortium, acquired Neopolis Plot 15 (4.03 acres) at the HMDA Phase 3 auction for INR 151.25 crore per acre. Master planning and concept development for Plot 15 are in progress, and proposed mixed-use configurations, design details, and timelines will be released after design finalisation and completion of statutory processes.

IndiaRF acquires 45.01% of Shree Digvijay Cement and launches a 26% open offer to secure control.
India Resurgence Fund acquired a 45.01% equity stake in Shree Digvijay Cement from True North and has announced an open offer for up to 26% equity pending SEBI approval; post-transaction and the open offer IndiaRF intends to hold a controlling stake. SDCCL (3.0 MTPA) has a strategic alliance with Hi-Bond (2.2 MTPA) including a 10-year exclusive brand usage, supply and distribution agreement and an option enabling SDCCL to acquire 100% of Hi-Bond, giving combined access to 5.2 MTPA in Gujarat.

Artificial intelligence, competition and governance workshop urged coordinated, proportionate regulation to protect competition and consumer welfare.
A Workshop by the Competition Commission of India with Nasscom examined AI governance, competition and consumer protection, stressing coordinated, proportionate regulatory responses to AI risks while enabling innovation. Three plenaries covered regulatory coordination and consumer protection; the AI market and competition landscape, featuring CCI's market study on AI and competition; and compliance, transparency, ethics and responsible AI in competitive markets, concluding with an emphasis on collaborative, risk based approaches to align AI development with competition principles and public interest.

RSM US India earns Great Place to Work certification, reflecting strong employee trust, inclusion and workplace safety.
RSM US LLP's India operations earned Great Place to Work certification based on confidential employee survey responses across four offices, demonstrating strong workplace culture through high ratings for safety, inclusion, and pride. The certification reflects measured employee perceptions of trust, credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie and supports RSM's positioning of India as a strategic growth engine, citing expansion to roughly 3,400 professionals and enhanced programs for flexibility, well being, learning and career mobility.

Mundhwa land deal: show-cause notice to suspended tehsildar; partner alleges signature forgery, seeks investigation now.
A show-cause notice has been issued to the suspended tehsildar in the Mundhwa government land sale, requiring an explanation why he should not be dismissed; the revenue department has sought cancellation of the sale deed and the Inspector General of Registration has initiated stamp duty recovery. The partner linked to the purchasing firm denies signing letters circulated in the media, alleges his signatures were forged, and has requested an investigation into the purported forgeries.

Digital NSWS module lets Indian firms generate sponsorship letters for e-B-4 production investment visas, streamlining e-visa applications.
DPIIT launched a National Single Window System module allowing Indian companies and LLPs to generate sponsorship letters for the e-Production Investment Visa (e-B-4); the module auto-populates and authenticates data from existing databases, issues a unique sponsorship-letter ID for the e-visa application, removes the line ministry recommendation requirement, and integrates via API with the e-visa portal to streamline the application process.

Mutual fund expense metrics restructured and IPO disclosures streamlined to ease compliance and boost retail debt participation.
Regulator introduces a base expense ratio excluding statutory levies while retaining TER as BER plus brokerage, regulatory and statutory levies; lowers brokerage caps and removes an additional exit load. It streamlines IPO disclosures by replacing the abridged prospectus with a concise standardised summary available earlier in the process, abolishes Letters of Confirmation in favor of direct demat credits after due diligence, and eases debt-market rules by allowing targeted incentives, raising the HVDLE threshold, permitting broader ratings by CRAs, and consolidating transfer of unclaimed amounts after seven years.

Govt streamlines e-B-4 visas for foreign technical professionals, enabling digital sponsorship letters and faster approvals.
The government created an e-Production Investment Business (e-B-4) Visa and launched an NSWS module allowing Indian companies and LLPs to generate digital sponsorship letters, integrated via API with the e-Visa portal. The process auto-populates and authenticates data from MCA and GSTN, removes the line ministry recommendation requirement, applies to PLI and non-PLI firms, and covers installation, commissioning, quality checks, production, training, supply chain development and senior management visits.

Corporate compliance reforms expand small company thresholds, decriminalize technical offences, and digitize filing and enforcement systems.
The reforms expand the definition of small company (paid up capital to Rs. 10 crore; turnover to Rs. 100 crore) effective 1 December 2025, broaden staged decriminalization of technical and procedural company and LLP offences into civil defaults, and introduce administrative facilitations including expanded fast track mergers with deemed approval, direct foreign listings, centralized processing centres (C PACE and CPC), and MCA21 V3 digital filing with risk based enforcement modules and stakeholder support mechanisms.

Haryana to register 1.38 crore farmers under AgriStack using Aadhaar OTP to create Farm IDs for targeted benefit delivery.
Haryana will register 1.38 crore farmers in a statewide Farmer Registry (AgriStack) using Aadhaar OTP-based authentication to create unique Farm IDs, with authorities directing village-level camps and coordination between revenue and agriculture departments. The registration launches in Ambala, Panchkula and Faridabad and officials ordered completion of the Farmer Registry and the Digital Crop Survey by February 2026 to strengthen digital land and crop records and enable targeted, transparent benefit delivery.

Mundhwa land deal: Custody of a power-of-attorney holder in alleged fraudulent sale of government land.
Allegations concern a fraudulent sale and illegal transfer of a 40-acre government plot sold at a steep undervalue to a firm in which a politician's son is a partner; accused individuals, including a power-of-attorney holder, a firm partner and a sub-registrar, face FIR-based criminal investigation while Pune city police EOW pursues a related probe; the power-of-attorney holder was taken into custody from judicial remand and produced before a local court, and one partner linked to the purchaser was not named in the Bavdhan FIR.

E-KYC drive for ration cards: 85.6% complete; near-universal Aadhaar linkage enables portable authentication at fair price shops.
The e-KYC drive for ration cards launched in May 2023 reports 85.6% completion, with 99.9% of ration cards and 99.2% of beneficiaries linked to Aadhaar; beneficiaries may complete e-KYC in any state or Union Territory at any fair price shop to enable Aadhaar-based authentication and portability of Public Distribution System entitlements.