NovoJuris Legal is a decade old law firm working in the areas of private equity, fund formation, cross-border transactions, foreign exchange matters, M&A including reverse mergers, demergers and the like, business structuring, intellectual property, real estate, employment laws, technology laws, start-ups, accelerators, mediation, and settlements. Our litigation practice is currently focused on specialized courts such as the National Company Law Tribunal.

We have worked on more than 250 equity financing, secondaries and exits, in India, US and Singapore. We have worked on both sides of the table. Our fund formation practice is primarily focused on establishing funds in Mauritius and procuring SEBI AIF registrations for funds in India, along with drafting of documents like the contribution agreements and fund management advisory contracts. The funds have also used our support to help their portfolio companies and manage their ongoing compliance.

Our technology practice covers wide ranging verticals such as drones, artificial intelligence, bots, bitcoins, payment systems, cloud, big data and analytics, numerous mobile apps, e-commerce and traditional retail, data centres and many more.

Our infrastructure practice is currently focused on helping clients establish and invest in solar power, micro-grids, EPCs, and carbon finance initiatives. The real estate practice works with builders, aiding with legal opinions, joint developments, joint ventures, title diligences, special economic zone operations, etc. Our intellectual property practice focuses not only on the protection of various IP forms, but also on the enforcement of patents, trademarks and the like, including IP audit and trainings. Mediation and settlements are part of the CXO level advisory and working with businesses through their journey

We are loved by start-ups and accelerators alike, for the CXO level advisory and engagement provided by us via founder engagements/disengagements, funding, exits, shutdowns, layoffs, acquihires, takeovers (asset or entity), business structuring, and on the many other challenges faced by owners while running a business.

About the Essay Competition

India has historically been a highly cash dependent economy.With the recent demonetization, the movement from leather wallets to digital wallets has taken the centre stage of discussion, with liquid cash supply drying up.The financial industry is primed for massive disruption with the use of technology. Some examples of such expected disruption are in the areas of:

• Payments, with wallets, payment gateways, payment solutions etc.;
• Lending, with peer-to-peer lending, crowd funding, digital credit, loan market places;
• Personal finance, with investment, insurance, money management.

The fintech industry is regulated by a legal labyrinth, including not just the Information Technology Act, 2000 and RBI regulations, but many other laws dealing with data privacy, security and the like. As of now, the laws are catching up to address the challenges that the fintech industry is raising.

In order to encourage research and analysis, NovoJuris Legal is bringing forth this topical competition on Fintech. The competition aims to provide a platform for students of law, to express their views on various critical issues surrounding the legal and regulatory frameworks for this this industry segment.

Theme

LEATHER WALLET TO MOBILE WALLET- LEGAL CHALLENGES

The following sub-themes have been identified as requiring academic consideration in the Indian context:

1. Cash to Cashless – The Blend of Commerce and Digitisation
2. A New Approach – Traditional Banking versus Payments Banks
3. Reliance on Technology – Is the Financial Sector Safe?

Important Dates

• Submission Date – The essays must be submitted on or before February 20, 2017.
• Declaration of the Result – The winners of the competition shall be notified by email and by declaration of results of the competition on the website of NovoJuris Legal (https://novojuris.com/) on March 12, 2017.

Prizes

1^st Prize –

• INR 10,000
• Internship at NovoJuris Legal

2^nd Prize –

• INR 8,000
• Internship at NovoJuris Legal

3^rd Prize –

• INR 6,000
• Internship at NovoJuris Legal

Eligibility

1. The competition is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in any law course in a recognized University/College/Institute in India.
2. Only one submission per author shall be entertained.
3. Co-authorship is not permitted.

Guidelines for Submission

1. The essays must be submitted in English only.
2. The essays should be the original work of the authors. Any kind of plagiarism will lead to disqualification.
3. The essays published elsewhere or selected/submitted for publication elsewhere shall be disqualified.
4. The name of the author should not be mentioned anywhere in the essay.
5. The word limit for the essay is 5000 – 7000 words, not including footnotes.
6. The essays should be typed in: Times New Roman, Font Size 12 and Line Spacing 1.5.
7. The footnotes must be typed in: Times New Roman, Font Size 10 and Line Spacing 1.
8. The margins should be 1” or 2.54 cm on all sides.
9. All text should be justified.
10. Every citation must follow the Harvard Bluebook, 19th Edition.

Submission Procedure

1. The essays must be sent by email to fintech.competition@novojuris.com
2. The body of the e-mail must specify the name of the author and College/Institute/University of Author.
3. The essay may be attached in ‘.doc’ or ‘.docx’ format only.
4. The participants are required to send the following details in a separate word document attached to the e-mail:

• Title of the Essay;
• Name of the Author;
• College/ Institute/University of Author
• Programme Enrolled & Year of Study of Author
• E-mail address & Contact No. of Author

Important Note

1. All original essays submitted for this competition shall become the sole property of NovoJuris Legal.
2. NovoJuris Legal shall have the right to publish the entries in the form of a journal, book, e-book.
3. A Committee of Experts shall be constituted as a Jury, to select the winning entries. The decision of the Jury shall be final and binding.
4. NovoJuris Legal possesses the right to reject entries which do not conform to the Guidelines for Submission.
5. NovoJuris Legal reserves the absolute rights to cancel, defer, or postpone indefinitely, the competition in the event of the accruing of any incident, natural or manmade.
6. In case of any dispute, the decision of NovoJuris Legal shall be final and binding.

Contact Persons

For any queries, you may leave us an e-mail at fintech.competition@novojuris.com