Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU), Raipur, has achieved a significant milestone by successfully completing its first TradeLab project. This project is a significant testament to the university’s growing involvement in research on international trade policy and digital governance. The project is being conducted under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). and the Centre for Trade and Investment Law (CTIL), New Delhi . This achievement reaffirms HNLU’s commitment to policy-oriented legal research of global importance.
- Under this project, the research team of HNLU contributed to the following two important regional publications—
- Digital Trade Regulatory Review for South and South-West Asia, 2025
- Regional Digital Trade Integration Index (RDTII) 2.1 Economy Profiles, 2025 , which analyses the economies of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
Both publications were prepared under the ESCAP–ECA–ECLAC initiative on Digital Trade Regulatory Integration . This initiative was led by Witada Anukoonwattaka , Economic Affairs Officer in ESCAP’s Trade, Investment and Innovation Division , and her team. These reports were developed through the TradeLab project at HNLU, Raipur, in collaboration with the Centre for Trade and Investment Law (CTIL), New Delhi .
The initial draft of the publications was developed by Ms. Sanjana Ramnath, Ms. Dhruvi Agarwal, and Mr. Garv Arora, while Mr. Satvik Shekhar, Dr. Ankit Awasthi, Mr. Tathagata Choudhary, and Mr. Samarth Nair provided significant academic contributions. This project is an excellent example of HNLU’s collaborative research model, integrating faculty mentorship and student-led research to address emerging topics in international trade regulation and digital commerce.
- Congratulating the research team on this achievement, HNLU Vice Chancellor Professor V C Vivekanandan said –
“The successful completion of HNLU’s first TradeLab project, in collaboration with ESCAP and CTIL, is a testament to the University’s emerging reputation as an influential policy-oriented research institution. Digital trade is rapidly transforming the global economy, and at a time like this, higher education institutions have a crucial responsibility to contribute meaningfully to international policymaking through fact-based, in-depth, and quality research. This achievement is a result of the commitment and excellent work of our students and faculty members and further strengthens HNLU’s vision of developing globally-minded legal scholars capable of addressing contemporary challenges in international economic governance. I heartily congratulate the entire team and look forward to many such fruitful collaborations with leading international institutions in the future.”
The success of this project further strengthens HNLU’s international research collaborations and underlines the University’s continued commitment to interdisciplinary research, capacity building, and meaningful contributions to regional and global policy discourse related to trade, technology, and digital regulation.
- Publications are available at the following links:
- ESCAP project page: https://www.unescap.org/projects/rcdtra
- Digital Trade Regulatory Review for South and South-West Asia, 2025 : https://repository.unescap.org/items/6a65fb27-4e31-470d-b2e2-f10537552eb1
- Regional Digital Trade Integration Index (RDTII) 2.1 Economy Profiles, 2025 : https://www.unescap.org/projects/rcdtra/economy-profiles
