Scientific Committee 2024
Rajat Bansal
Rajat Bansal is a retired IRS officer from 1987 batch and served as the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (International Taxation) based at Delhi. He has worked in the CBDT as well as in the field formations in various capacities. In CBDT, he worked as Joint Secretary (FT&TR), CBDT and as India’s Competent Authority for treaty negotiations, MAP/APA and exchange of information. He was amongst the first Transfer Pricing Officers in India and set up the TP office at Delhi in 2003 besides making the first TP adjustments in India.
As Indian Competent Authority for treaty negotiations, he handled several treaty negotiations and is also accredited with amendments to tax treaties with Mauritius and Singapore. As Competent Authority, he handled MAP and BAPA negotiations with Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, Korea, etc. for six years. He was India’s Single Point of Contact for Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty related changes due to BEPS (MLI), Global Forum for Tax Transparency and Exchange of Information, Forum for Harmful Tax Practices, CATA, CIAT, BRICS etc.
He was a Member of the UN Tax Committee on Cooperation in International Tax Matters in Expert/Personal capacity from 2017-21, where he contributed to UN Model updating, UN Transfer Pricing Handbook revision and UN Dispute Resolution Handbook. His proposal on taxation of Digital Economies resulted in UN Tax Committee deciding to insert a new Article 12B in UN Model Tax Convention 2021. He was also the Head of Working Group which updated the India Chapter of UN TP Manual in 2017 and 2021.
PARUL JAIN
Head, International Tax Practice at Nishith Desai Associates
Parul is a Chartered Accountant, a Certified Public Accountant and a lawyer with two decades of experience. She focuses primarily on cross border investments and VC / PE funding structures. She has advised various PE clients with respect to their portfolio business operations restructuring, including advice on M&A transactions, spin offs and group reorganisation strategies. She was previously a partner in the Financial Services and M&A Tax Practices at a Big Four accounting firm.
Parul has been acknowledged by ITR World Tax as a ‘Highly Regarded Tax Practitioner’ and ‘Women in Tax Leader’ for the year 2023, as well as consecutively for several years. Additionally, she has been included in The Legal500 and Chambers & Partners international directories as a recommended lawyer for tax practice in India for the year 2024.
Ashrita Prasad Kotha
Dr. Ashrita Prasad Kotha is an Assistant Professor (Department of Revenue
Chair) at National Law School of India University, Bangalore where she
teaches Taxation Law. She holds the BCL degree from University of Oxford
and a Phd in International Business Taxation from Vienna University of
Economics and Business. Her doctoral thesis was titled ‘Earmarked Taxes: A
Tax Treaty and EU Law Analysis’. Ashrita has published in several national
and international journals. She has been the recipient of scholarships for
research stays at the Max Planck Institute of Tax Law and Public Finance
and University of New South Wales (Abe Greenbaum Research Fellowship).
Her co-authored report on Cesses and Surcharges was submitted to the
Fifteenth Finance Commission.
Sudarshan Rangan
Advocate : Legal Policy Specialist
Sudarshan is currently UNDP’s regional tax specialist for the Asia & the Pacific
region part of the Tax4SDGs and TIWB initiative under the Sustainable Finance
Hub. The initiative aims to align tax policies with the SDGs and also strengthen
domestic revenue mobilization to achieve the SDGs. On the professional front,
he is a qualified legal attorney, a commercial mediator and chartered
accountant from India. He has a Master’s in International Tax Law from the
Vienna University of Economics & Business (WU) as a FIT Scholar.
Before his foray into the development sector, he was a legal attorney focusing
on international economic laws. His major focus areas are on International
Economic Laws viz., International Tax, Trade & Investments Laws. He has
appeared for the state on taxation matters as well as on investment arbitration
disputes. Further, as also contributed technically to trade negotiations towards
free trade agreements and also as an expert witness. He has been on the
Government constituted advisory panel on economic reforms and tax reforms.
CA Kush Vatsaraj
Vatsaraj & Co, Chartered Accountants, Mumbai
Kush Vatsaraj qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2015 and worked at M/s T P Ostwal & Associates LLP as part of the international tax practice. In 2021 he joined M/s Vatsaraj & Co, being the 4 th generation founding family member of the audit & tax practice founded in 1934.
He specialises in providing advisory & consultancy on international taxation, inbound &
outbound investments, cross-border & domestic structuring and restructuring transactions,
Indian foreign exchange control laws, and business valuations. He also advises Indian HNIs
and business families on family trusts & estate planning.
He is on the FIT Scientific Committee and Secretary of IFA-India’s WRC.
He writes extensively on a wide range of topics and has authored/ co-authored several
research papers, articles and chapters for Indian and international professional journals,
news publications, and business magazines. He also speaks at various conferences
organized by both India and international professional associations.
Akshara Rao
Akshara is a member of the International Corporate Tax Team at Deloitte, Luxembourg. She holds an LL.M. degree from the renowned Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law in Vienna, Austria. She was honoured as a ‘FIT Fellow’ by the Foundation for International Taxation and received the prestigious Uma Sathnur – FIT Scholarship to pursue her LL.M. Prior to this, she worked as an Associate at BMR Legal Advocates in India, where she was involved in advisory, litigation, research, and policy endeavors spanning International Tax, Transfer Pricing, and Direct Tax matters. She has contributed to prominent publications, such as Tax Notes International, Bulletin for International Taxation (IBFD), and Asia-Pacific Tax Bulletin (IBFD). Her research interests include international tax, dispute resolution and digital taxation. Akshara earned a Bachelor of Law degree from Jindal Global Law School, India.
