Weeknotes: 24/2026
On executive power, remittance economics, BITs and FTAs, intellectual humility, autonomous institutions, Bihar politics, data-centre development, divorce law, religion, Covey’s synergy, AI and media
In this Weeknotes:
1. Vidheesha Kuntamalla, Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee struck down: For Indian professionals, why some damage may already have been done
This wasn’t just news to me, but another contemporary insight into constitutional law. Most modern states and their governments charge taxes, regulatory fees or penalties to fund statutory functions and services. All these sources of revenue must be backed by a statute. The executive, which in this case was the President of the United States, can enforce laws and regulate within the law, but cannot create new laws to impose a tax. That is exactly what happened when President Trump put a price of $100,000 on H-1B visas. The Massachusetts court essentially asked whether this charge was a penalty for breach of any defined statutory norm. It clearly was not. Nor could such a large amount reasonably be considered a regulatory fee. It therefore amounted to a tax, which lay beyond the President’s authority and could only be imposed by Congress. The measure was consequently held unconstitutional.
2. Siddharth Upasani, Workers’ remittances cross $100 billion in FY26, but long-term BoP solution needed
This basically means that Indian migrants sent home about ₹9 lakh crore worth of money in FY26. The takeaway for me from this article was that there are many ways to serve one’s community and country. One view holds that human beings are part of communities and that their first duty is towards their family and communities that they were born. Another view argues that individuals should move to places where their skills and talents are most valued, thereby creating the greatest value for society. The article highlights that, for the first time, remittances have come more from developed countries, whereas traditionally they came from Gulf countries. Indians have also been sending money for charitable and religious purposes. This suggests that India is now exporting not only labour but also skills to the developed world. The article also highlights a limitation: a country cannot rely solely on remittances because they are largely used for private consumption. Countries become prosperous through strong institutions, which in turn require investment and productive economic activity.
3. The Indian Express, New bilateral investment model: 2-year local remedy window, no most favoured nation clause and Fifteen FTAs, 27 countries, four challenges
These two articles together highlight a common issue: India requires three things to become a developed country, namely more foreign investment, more exports, and stronger domestic manufacturing. The first article discusses bilateral investment treaties (BITs), wherein the government is relaxing certain conditions for foreign investors. Instead of waiting five years before pursuing arbitration, investors may now have to wait only two years. Our former Chief Economic Adviser cites research suggesting that BITs do not necessarily increase foreign investment. Rather, it is a country’s overall investment climate, including macroeconomic stability and the rule of law that attracts capital. On the other hand, the example of Indonesia suggests that India has been unusually restrictive with its dispute-resolution waiting period. The second article argues that foreign trade and investment policies are not sufficiently helping Indian firms manufacture domestically and export globally. In contrast, ASEAN countries have built manufacturing hubs that produce goods cheaply and export them duty-free to India. As a result, investment and jobs often move abroad. The article ultimately asks whether India can become a major manufacturing power while keeping its markets highly open to imports from more industrialised economies. The author’s answer is no, unless trade policy, investment policy and industrial policy work together.
4. Shashi Tharoor, Spirit of Samvad must not be lost
Every week now, there seems to be one noteworthy article written by Shashi Tharoor. This week, he recounts the story of a Chinese scholar Keiji Mao who delivered two presentations on how China built its industrial and technological ecosystem: one to an Indian audience and another to a Vietnamese audience. Although the content was largely the same, the responses were strikingly different. The Vietnamese participants listened patiently, asked thoughtful questions, and even sought advice on how Vietnam could improve its own trajectory. The Indian participants, by contrast, entered into counterarguments. As a result, the scholar remarked that while the Indians may have won the debate, they missed a valuable opportunity for learning. He added that he knew many years in advance which country would emerge as the true beneficiary of the China+1 strategy. Mr. Tharoor leaves us with a question: In situations like these, does our response contribute to understanding and problem-solving or does it merely serve to assert our position?
5. Abhinaya Harigovind, Minister isn’t running away... he’s taken steps to fix the problem: Rijiju
Mr. Rijiju’s response in the NEET controversy raises an important question: in such situations, are ministers responsible or is responsibility limited to the autonomous body created by statute? According to him, a minister is responsible only when fraud is committed by the minister or the minister’s staff. If wrongdoing occurs within an autonomous body, then that body itself is answerable. He cited CBSE as an example of an autonomous institution that is not directly supervised by the minister on a day-to-day basis.
6. Santosh Singh, On Nishant’s Bihar MLC Election
Santosh Singh writes that, for Nishant, the election is largely a formality. The NDA holds 202 of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly, while each Legislative Council candidate requires the votes of only 25 MLAs. For anyone wondering how a non-elected, non-expert individual can become a Health Minister in a constitutional democracy, the answer lies partly in the structure of our bicameral state legislatures. The Legislative Council was theoretically designed to bring subject-matter experts into the legislative process. In practice, however as we can see, these seats often go to family members, loyalists and political insiders.
7. Yash Tiwari, Why AI data centres are the new goldmine for Indian law firms
Legal advisory work for data centres differs significantly from conventional real estate projects. Unlike a traditional real estate project, where legal and compliance work largely ends after completion, data centre advisory work is ongoing. This has become a new goldmine for Indian law firms because it involves highly specialised contracts and depends on factors beyond land and construction, including power availability, water supply, fibre connectivity and data security.
8. The Indian Express, In law, need to write a new marriage story and In India, needed: A dignified demise for a broken marriage
Traditionally, Hindu law has recognised only two routes to divorce: no-fault mutual consent and fault-based contested divorce. The Supreme Court has periodically used its powers under Article 142(1) to expand this framework by recognising the concept of irretrievable breakdown of marriage (IBM). It has repeatedly urged the government to consider formally incorporating IBM as a statutory ground for divorce. The first article argues that such a reform is necessary but cautions against ignoring the realities of a deeply patriarchal society, where women often enter divorce proceedings from a position of social and economic disadvantage and thus the process should not become another instrument for perpetuating inequality. The second article explains why IBM was not originally incorporated into the law. A marriage that has broken down with mutual acceptance raises very different concerns from one where only a single spouse seeks an exit - safeguards appropriate to one situation may be inadequate for the other. Where both parties accept that the marriage has ended and are merely disputing finances or child custody, the law should provide an easier exit. At the same time, forcing a party to remain in a dead marriage solely to secure the financial interests of the other serves neither spouse. The authors suggest that the solution lies in economic restitution. In cases of unilateral no-fault divorce, courts should compensate not only financial loss but also the emotional injury arising from the unilateral rupture of a shared life.
9. Kamal Saiyed, Hindu last rites for Parsi woman married to a Muslim
News like this makes me proud of my religion. A Parsi woman married to a Muslim man was denied permission by both communities to perform her last rites according to their respective traditions. In the end, with the help of a friend, her final rites were conducted according to Hindu rituals, offering this family a sense of closure.
10. Synergy, In life and in relationships, the whole is greater than sum of all its parts
I first encountered this idea in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Habit Six teaches that, in life and relationships, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Two people may appear similar on paper, yet experience life very differently because of how their individual qualities fit together. Covey calls this phenomenon synergy. A common expression of this idea is that 1+1=3 (figuratively rather than mathematically) and the extra one represent the value created through cooperation, interaction and combination between parties.
11. Abhinav Chakraborty, Is a text Al-aided? Science, limits of detection tools
AI-generated text is often associated with certain stylistic markers such as excessive use of em dashes, bullet points and unusually neat conclusions. Earlier, we had tools to detect plagiarism. Now we have tools that claim to identify AI-generated writing. One such tool is Pangram, which claims a false-positive rate of one in 10,000 cases and cites independent validation studies. The article references research suggesting that even when a piece of writing is only lightly polished using a language model, AI-detection tools frequently classify it as fully AI-generated.
12. Media: Movie and Podcast
+ Netflix, Vladimir: Based on Julia May Jonas’s 2022 novel of the same name, Vladimir might appear from its trailer to be a romantic comedy but in reality, it is a psychological exploration of desire, obsession, ageing, sexuality, power imbalances, consent, marriage, infidelity and self-deception. There are much in the story that remains highly relevant to our contemporary discussions.
+ Semafor Podcast, Wall Street’s Newest Obsession: This podcast introduced me to litigation finance. Among other things, it treats commercial legal claims as financial assets that can be financed, secured and traded in ways similar to receivables. In the United States, 49 out of 50 states prohibit law firms from sharing revenue with non-lawyers. The United Kingdom, however, has permitted variations of this model for roughly two decades. This insight helped me better understand why the legal profession even in India remains deeply tied to inherited networks and established partnerships. One quote from the podcast stood out: a law firm partner reflected on the value created during his career and remarked that had he built a technology company instead, he would likely have accumulated vastly greater wealth by selling it to investors.