Competition Commission of India Appoints Three New Members

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has appointed three new members to oversee cases – Anil Agrawal, a former police official and former commerce ministry employee; Sweta Kakkad, a lawyer with a background in compliance for WhatsApp; Deepak Anurag, a former official of India’s Comptroller and Auditor General.

The appointment decisions were finalized and taken by the federal government at a time when CCI is investigating several high-profile global companies, including Amazon (AMZN. O), Walmart’s (WMT. N) Flipkart, Google (GOOGL. O) and liquor giant Pernod Ricard (PERP. PA), for alleged antitrust violations.

Anil Agrawal, who recently worked at India’s commerce ministry as well as various startup initiatives and setting up of the government’s e-commerce network, Open Network For Digital Commerce, confirmed his appointment but wasn’t able to provide further details.

The appointment of senior members is crucial for the functioning of CCI. In May, Ravneet Kaur was named as chairperson. Kaur has held several positions in government over the last two decades, including as chairperson of the India Tourism Development Corp between 2017 and 2019.

Read more: A Competition Law for Shaping the Future of the Indian Economy: Competition Commission of India 2.0

The antitrust body’s fresh members bring many years first-hand knowledge working in various industriess, from restaurants to telecoms. The new appointments would seek to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and credibility of the CCI by levelling the playing field, as the previously appointed members were all senior government officials while the new additions have extensive industry experience.

Source: Business Standard