Govt looking to open education, legal services for foreign firms

The move to introduce foreign players is aimed at boosting India's services sector

The government is following a "calibrated approach" to open its education and legal services for foreigners, a move aimed at boosting the country's services sector.

In a country like India, "this (the liberalisation of the services sector) is to be slow and should have a calibrated approach. It is at a very early stage. A roadmap has been prepared," Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia told PTI.

Explaining the country's approach to open the education sector, the secretary said, in the beginning, opening online courses could be an option.

"Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is doing something. Some professional bodies are also offering online courses. So, when we have such strong technical institutions of high repute, they can open more online courses and make those accessible to other countries," she said.

With regard to legal services, she said the Commerce Ministry's intention is to work with the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Society for Indian Law Firms (SILF) to move in a direction which is "calibrated and always reciprocal."

"The first step should be to look at our domestic sector. How do we make an environment which allows for the growth of our legal services sector?" she said.

She said that the roadmap developed by the Department of Commerce with stakeholders is to first permit "multi- professional firms to come in, and to allow them to increase the size of the firms."

"These could be early stage reforms which we would touch on. Once we do that, in next stage, we can consult with the BCI," she added.

Opening these two sectors to foreign players comes under the ambit of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS).

The UK and the US have been pushing India to open up the legal services sector to foreign firms.

The Advocates Act, which is administered by the BCI, provides for foreign lawyers or law firms to visit India on a reciprocal basis for temporary periods to advise their clients on foreign law and diverse international legal issues.