Desai & Diwanji and Rajani Associates have advised Motilal Oswal Private Equity Advisers on its Rs 40 crore investment in automobile component maker Minda Industries.

AZB & Partners has been instructed on Bharti Airtel’s $10.7bn bid for the African business of Kuwaiti telecoms group Zain, with Herbert Smith and Linklaters scoring the international advisory mandates for the Indian company’s third attempt to enter the continent.

Luthra & Luthra senior associate Shishir Jose Vayttaden has written and published a 1000-page book on SEBI’s Takeover Regulations, which is touted by the publisher as the best commentary on the subject.

Bharucha & Partners is moving its corporate department making and half the firm into Talwar Thakore Associates former Mumbai office, almost doubling its available floorspace in Mumbai.

M Dhruva & Partners, which spun out of J Sagar Associates earlier this month, has acted on its first independent litigation matter opposite Crawford Bayley, directing the arrest of a ship on behalf of its Hong Kong-based client Star Matrix.

Kochhar & Co has hired two partners in Chennai and Hyderabad in a major South India push, which includes new Chennai and Bangalore office space and further expansion plans.

ALMT Legal in Bangalore and Malaysian law firm Zuraidah Naziha & Fadly advised Indian developer Davanam Constructions and Ascenteus Holdings of Malaysia in their $350m joint venture hotel project.

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider CPA Global has hired Rio Tinto’s managing attorney Leah Cooper as a board member, following Cooper striking a deal last year to outsource $20m of the mining giant’s annual legal work to CPA in India.

Induslaw has created a new career step of principal associate as a one-to-two-year training ground before partnership and has promoted one if its senior associates into the new role.

FoxMandal Little has acted as lender’s counsel on the Rs 2224 crores ($515mn) ONGC Tripura Power Company project finance documentation acting for Power Finance Corporation. The firm was instructed in September 2009, with Delhi senior partner B N Banerjee, and senior associate Rajesh Sehgal and assoc...

FoxMandal Little’s London office has hired UK MP Keith Vaz as a “brand ambassador”, while the firm’s similar commercial retainer with its previous London consultant and former High Court judge has ended.

Surana & Surana head consultant litigation M L Joseph has set up the law firm Chennai Law Associates to focus on contentious and intellectual property matters.

Link Legal has promoted senior associate Ajay Sawhney to partnership in its corporate and aviation practice and has hired a senior associate projects lawyer from in-house.

Desai & Diwanji and Tatva Legal, with Davis Polk & Wardwell and Richards Butler advised on private equity house Quadrangle Capital and others’ $300m investment in India’s second largest operator of telecoms towers Tower Vision India.

SN Gupta & Co is launching its Mumbai litigation practice with the hire of former MLS Vani & Associates senior associate Hiren Mehta as a partner, who will look to building a practice of 10 lawyers in the firm’s new High Court office.

A divison bench of the Delhi High Court has widened across India its April 2009 judgment that service tax on commercial rentals is ultra vires the Finance Act, in a victory for law firm LexCounsel.

Luthra & Luthra has closed the Rs 2400 crores ($521m) GVK Power (Goindwalsahib) project finance fundraising acting for IDBI Bank and a consortium of 12 others as lender’s counsel.

Luthra & Luthra’s projects team was led by Mumbai partner Vijaya Rao (pictured), assisted by managing associate Bikash Jhawar, and associates Pulkit Sharma and Sneha Jha.

Khaitan & Co and Naik Naik & Co have advised multiplex owner INOX Leisure in acquiring a 43.28 per cent stake of the promoter group of rival multiplex chain Fame India for Rs 66.34 crore.

Khaitan & Co has picked up the Indian mandate to advise private equity group Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) on the $440m purchase of legal process outsourcing company CPA Global, alongside a raft of international firms.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai is acting for Oberoi Realty while AZB & Partners Mumbai and Shearman & Sterling Singapore are acting for the underwriters in the Rs 1,500 crore ($325m) initial public offering (IPO) of the Mumbai real estate company, according to the draft prospectus filed with t...