{"id":1365,"date":"2026-07-04T11:55:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/?p=1365"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:55:39","slug":"india-israel-bit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/india-israel-bit\/","title":{"rendered":"India-Israel BIT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

India-Israel BIT<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/mark><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s in the news?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/mark><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • The Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA)<\/strong> between India<\/strong> and Israel<\/strong>, signed in 2025, has entered into force. \n
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    • Israel<\/strong> is the first Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member state<\/strong> with which India has signed this strategic agreement, in accordance with India\u2019s new model for investment treaties in 2015.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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      Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development:<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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      • OECD is an intergovernmental organization<\/strong> of 38 member countries<\/strong> that discuss and develop economic and social policy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • OECD members are typically developed, high-income economies<\/strong> with a high Human Development Index (HDI).\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • India is not a member of OECD.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Headquarters:<\/strong> Paris, France<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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        • The agreement is expected to boost investments, provide greater certainty and protection for investors, and facilitate the growth of trade and mutual investments.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • India and Israel are strategic partners<\/strong>, with annual bilateral trade <\/strong>standing at nearly $4 billion.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\n
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          • Between 2000 and 2025, Indian investments in Israel reached $443 million, while Israel\u2019s foreign direct investment in India amounted to $334.2 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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            What are BITs?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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            • Bilateral Investment Treaties,<\/strong> also known as International Investment Agreements (IIAs),<\/strong> are reciprocal, legally enforceable treaties designed to protect foreign private investments <\/strong>by establishing minimum guarantees, such as fair and equitable treatment, protection from expropriation (act of a government claiming privately owned property), etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • India signed its first BIT<\/strong> with the UK <\/strong>in 1994. By 2015<\/strong>, India had signed 83 treaties <\/strong>based on the Indian Model BIT of 1993.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\n
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              • A Model BIT is a template or standardized text<\/strong> that a country uses as a basis for negotiating and drafting its actual bilateral investment treaties with other countries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • However, this older regime was asymmetrical<\/strong>; while granting extensive rights to investors, it was silent on the obligations of foreign investors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                Revised Model BIT 2015:<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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                • To address these challenges, India adopted a revised Model BIT<\/strong> in 2015<\/strong>. Consequently, the government terminated several existing treaties to renegotiate them under the new terms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                  Key Features of the Revised Model:<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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                  1. The new model aims to balance investor protection with the government’s sovereign right to regulate.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                  2. It introduced a refined Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision<\/strong> requiring investors<\/strong> to exhaust domestic legal remedies for at least five years before resorting to international arbitration.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                  3. The Model BIT encourages foreign investors to voluntarily adopt internationally recognized standards of corporate social responsibility (CSR).\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                  4. It adopts an \u2018enterprise-based\u2019 definition of investment <\/strong>which means that an investor would have to be an incorporated legal entity in compliance with the domestic law to qualify as an investment.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                  5. One of the most important features of the amended model is that it dropped the Most Favoured Nation (MFN)<\/strong> clause, a provision frequently used by foreign investors to litigate against India.\u00a0\n
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                    • The MFN clause is a fundamental principle of non-discrimination<\/strong> in international economic relations, ensuring that any benefits granted to one country are automatically extended to others.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                      India-Israel BIT What\u2019s in the news? Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: What are BITs? Revised Model BIT 2015: Key Features of the Revised Model:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1367,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions\/1367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}