DSK Legal advised India Value Fund Advisors’ (IVFA) trustee IVF Trustee Company in its Rs 1000 crore ($181m) investment in Bangalore-based Manipal Health Enterprises which was advised by Tatva Legal.

Exclusive: Dua Associates launched a tax practice in the firm’s Gurgaon office after appointing former Deloitte Haskins & Sells tax director Ashutosh Mahajan and a team of five Deloitte chartered accountants (CA) and one former PricewaterhouseCoopers in-house lawyer last month.

Deals in private equity, corporate M&A, sports-media law, and competition law merger control in this update.

Corporate recruiter ICICI Bank has increased its basic pay package for new recruiters by almost one and a half lakh rupees taking the basic annual package to 10.5 lakh, as Bharucha & Partners, Juris Corp and Majmudar & Co hiked their fresher pay. Tatva Legal kicked off its first law school recruitment season with packages of Rs 8 lakh.

Juris Corp and Tatva Legal have advised on private equity fund BanayanTree Growth Capital’s minority stake investment in oil, gas and power services company Dee Development Engineers.

Phoenix Legal and Tatva Legal have advised on the global catering and onboard services provider Gategroup’s 74 per cent stake take-over of India’s leading airline catering company Skygourmet, which is valued at $92m.

AZB & Partners has topped the mergermarket league table for the first three quarters of 2010 in a record year of M&A activity so far. The firm is followed in the rankings by Desai & Diwanji, Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and newcomer Tatva Legal according to the total number of mandates.

Dua Associates Mumbai partner Mahernosh Humranwala and his team are on notice to join Tatva Legal next month and will head up the half-year-old firm’s Mumbai growth efforts, which was formed by 50 former Dua lawyers.

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.

Dua Associates has circulated a statement to members of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) after 41 Dua lawyers and nine partners are now confirmed to have joined breakaway firm Tatva Legal. Tatva has also responded with its first public statement.

At least 20 to 30 lawyers from Dua Associates are starting up a new national law firm with offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai.