Ravneet Kaur to head Competition Commission of India

Since October 22 with the retirement of Ashok Kumar Gupta, the competition regulator - the Competition Commission of India (CCI) did not have anyone to spearhead the organization.  

The members of CCI have been heading it. In fact, the panel has not had a quorum for the last seven months, since Gupta retired.

Ravneet Kaur has been selected to head CCI for five years or till she turns 65, whichever is earlier and will draw a monthly salary of Rs 4.5 lakhs without a house and car.

This appointment has been done at a critical time when the competition regulator’s power has been substantially widened and it is investigating anti-trust issues against some of the big-tech players. The government is also planning to come out with a digital competition law.    

The cases are fraught with increasing complexity, with the CCI forced to defend its orders in both the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and the Supreme Court.

The vacuum at the top has created a situation wherein the Delhi High Court had to invoke the doctrine of necessity to ask the CCI to take up a plea by Indian start-ups against Google.

Kaur holds a post-graduate degree from Punjab University. She has served across departments even though her focus area has been finance. She has also spent a year as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at Cornell University.

She has been a consultant with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC.

Presently, Kaur is serving as Special Chief Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Punjab government’s Department of Revenue and Disaster Management.