Workshop on 'The Long Arm of the State in the Tech Sector and its Impact on Corporate Purpose' by JSW Centre for the Future of Law, NLSIU Bengaluru (Online, 14 August 2026, Free)

The JSW Centre for the Future of Law at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, is organising a workshop titled 'The Long Arm of the State in the Tech Sector and its Impact on Corporate Purpose'. The session is a paper workshop: the authors present work in progress and take questions from the floor, which makes it useful for anyone reading in corporate law, technology regulation or law and political economy.

The workshop is held online on Friday, 14 August 2026, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM, and NLSIU states that it is open to the public. There is no fee.

The JSW Centre for the Future of Law was established at NLSIU in 2024 with support from the JSW Foundation. Its stated aim is to expand academic learning, advance research and inform policy debates on issues at the intersection of law, technology and system reform.

The Centre works across six thematic priority areas:

• Law and Artificial Intelligence
• Data Governance and Regulation
• Health, Biotechnology and Ethics
• Risk Regulation and Regulatory Design
• Climate, Biodiversity and Ecological Justice
• Technology and Legal System Reform

The Centre is led by Dr. Umakanth Varottil (Visiting Director, Professor at the National University of Singapore) and Dr. Rahul Hemrajani (Faculty Director, Assistant Professor at NLSIU).

• Victoria Baumfield, Assistant Professor, Bond Law School
• Akshaya Kamalnath, Associate Professor, ANU Law School

Per the abstract published by NLSIU: corporate purpose debates, much of them theoretical, have captured academic and industry attention in the recent past. The paper examines the specific case of government investment in companies within the tech sector, with a view to understanding the aims of such investment and the implications of this for the idea of corporate purpose.

The tech sector is treated as particularly relevant because, at every stage in history, the cutting-edge technology of the time has been a matter of interest for the government. The paper uses case studies from the United States and Australia, with future research envisaged using case studies from emerging economies to further advance knowledge on corporate purpose and the entanglement of states and private enterprises.

On the basis of those case studies the authors argue that governments are pursuing strategic aims through their investments in the tech sector, which they term strategic socialism. They are critical of it and caution against the long arm of the State. The paper is offered as a contribution both to the understanding of corporate purpose grounded in practical insight and to the broader understanding of the intertwining of business and government.

• Day and date: Friday, 14 August 2026
• Time: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
• Mode: Online, via Microsoft Teams
• Fee: None. The workshop is free to attend.

NLSIU states that the workshop is open to the public. There is no restriction to NLSIU students or faculty, and no separate eligibility criterion is prescribed. Law students, research scholars, academics and practitioners working on corporate law, corporate governance, technology regulation and regulatory design are the natural audience for the paper.

Registration is through the Microsoft Teams event page linked by NLSIU on the official event notice. Register on that page to receive the joining link for the session.

The organisers have not announced a separate registration cut-off date, so register ahead of the session on 14 August 2026 rather than leaving it to the hour of the workshop.

Queries regarding the activities of the Centre, including this workshop, can be directed to the JSW Centre for the Future of Law at cfl@nls.ac.in. The NLSIU campus board line is 080-23010000.