In May this year, Ravneet Kaur took charge as the first, full-time, woman chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The competition regulator was without a full-time chairperson for the past seven months since Ashok Kumar Gupta’s departure in October 2022. Sangeeta Verma, a CCI member, had been acting as its chairperson since October last year.

Ms Kaur’s appointment to the top post of the competition regulator is quite crucial as the CCI has been involved in regulating a number of issues of serious economic and national consequences. Ms Kaur, 59, is a seasoned bureaucrat and 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Punjab cadre.

A postgraduate in economics from Punjab University, the new CCI chief has served across departments both in Punjab as well as in the Union government. Ms Kaur spent a year as a Hubert H Humphrey Fellow at Cornell University, US, and also secured an MSc in Public Economic Management from University of Birmingham, UK. She had also served as a consultant with International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC.

With over three-and-a-half decades of experience in various Central and State government positions, most of Ms Kaur’s assignments have been centred on financial affairs. Her educational background in economics has helped her fulfil her responsibilities quite efficiently, recall her past colleagues.

Before taking charge as the CCI chief, Ms Kaur was special chief secretary and financial adviser in the Punjab government’s Department of Revenue and Disaster Management. She has also served as principal secretary in the Departments of Higher Education and Languages, Cabinet and Coordination and Parliamentary Affairs, among others, with the Punjab government. She was also vice-chairperson and managing director of Punjab Communications.

Ms Kaur has been associated with the Union government in the past in several top positions. She was chairperson and managing director of EXIM Bank, India Infrastructure Finance Company and India Tourism Development Corporation and also had a stint in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (now DPIIT).

The competition regulator’s powers have been substantially widened, and it has been probing anti-trust issues against some of the big-technology players, including those pertaining to Google and Apple. The CCI is dealing with all complaints related to GST profiteering. The government is also planning to come out with a digital competition law. Ms Kaur assumes office of the CCI chief at this crucial period

The CCI has played a significant role in promoting competition in the Indian market. It has investigated and taken action against a number of anti-competitive practices – including cartels, price-fixing and abuse of dominant position. The competition regulator will be called upon to adjudicate on many more vital issues as well as regulate several matters related to significant economic importance. Ms Kaur’s expertise across finance, accountancy and other economic issues and her rich experience across many departments in both Union and Punjab governments should certainly stand her in good stead as she takes up her new responsibility.