Balancing innovation and fair play needed: CCI chairman Ashok Kumar Gupta

We need to be sensitive to market demand while approving proposed acquisitions.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has discovered prominent digital tech giants are using their ecosystem to stifle competition through a network effect. Ashok Kumar Gupta, outgoing CCI chairman, tells Shrimi Choudhary the regulator wants to ensure that every player gets an equal and fair chance to succeed in its market segment while ensuring that it doesn’t use the network effect to push smaller players out of markets. He says the new competition Bill, being reviewed by a parliamentary panel, will provide greater certainty to new-age businesses. Edited excerpts:

Do you think recent action against some digital giants will curb