With the government notifying almost every component of the Competition Act, the country’s anti-competitive practices watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), is beginning to function as a full-fledged body. The concept of competition and anti-competitive laws being new to the country, the task before the commission is huge. Apart from establishing itself as a performing organisation, the commission will have to sensitise various stakeholders on anti-competitive practices that are becoming more evident in a free-market economy. Dhanendra Kumar, chairperson of CCI, talks to Joe C Mathew on the priorities before the commission in its formative days. Excerpts:
What are immediate tasks before you?
The first task is to set up an experts’ body comprising professionals, which is supposed to look into various issues connected with competition. So, we have to have a large number of professionals in analysing the state of the market, a large number of economic experts, lawyers.
How many professionals have you managed to take on board?
So far, we have appointed about 40 professionals, mostly on deputation from various government departments. But we are going to recruit a total of 122 professionals, including the existing persons. The people who are on deputation can also apply for these posts as these will be regular posts. In addition, we will also have 63 support staff on our rolls. In other words, the Competition Commission is on a massive recruitment drive for experts and professionals, and that is our immediate objective. In addition, we have a provision for recruitment of experts and it will continue depending on the short-term needs from time to time. We also have provision to have interns, young graduates from law schools or economic institutes. We can train them for three months. So, all these people will be recruited and trained within India and abroad.
When are you expecting the recruitments to be over?
The scrutiny of the applications should begin in a month. Since we are expecting a large number of applications, we are engaging a professional body to assist us scrutinise them. But the decision will be taken by us and will happen soon. We will try to select the best people available from all over the country.
Competition law being new and very specialised, how do you expect to get sufficient number of professionals who are familiar with the field?
We will recruit the best brains and train all of them. In fact, the training programmes have already begun. The first batch has gone to Brussels as part of the EU-India bilateral cooperation. There will be three batches that we will be sending to Brussels. Recruits will be sent to other countries also. Similarly, we are also conducting training within India. The Indian Institute of Competition has just finished training programme for one batch. So, we want to recruit high quality people and train them.
Has CCI given its verdict on any of the anti-competitive practices complaints that have been filed? How many such cases are going on now?
I would not talk about pending cases, but there are quite a few complaints that have come to us.
Also Read
Even though the government has notified most of the clauses in the Competition Act, the sections related to mergers and acquisitions are yet to get notified. When is it expected?
Yes, mergers and acquisition clauses, referred in the section 5 and 6 of Competition Act, they are to be notified by the government. The government is looking at it and I am sure they will be notified soon. Meanwhile, consultations with all the stakeholders are going on.
What kind of concerns have been expressed by stakeholders?
Their concerns are mainly about delays. Since CCI clearance is mandatory for mergers and acquisitions, they were worried about the outer limit for clearance. They feel this could delay the process. But we have decided that we will try to do it within 30 days. Anyway, I don’t want to anticipate any decision. We have made sure that all concerns will be duly addressed and the watchdog will act in concert with all the stakeholders and will make sure that we facilitate economic growth.
CCI had commissioned sector-specific studies in areas like infrastructure, air traffic, anti dumping, etc. Any follow-up actions?
So far, 16 studies have been conducted and we have been going through them and taking out key issues and messages on the areas we need to look at. We intend to have sector-specific discussions with industry ministries and sensitise them on these issues.