In sync with the mandate of CCI and the role of competition in economic development, the Commission has started an exercise to assess select legislations and policies (Acts, Bills, Rules, Regulations and Policies) from competition perspective and share the assessment with the associated stakeholders. The Commission has empanelled seven academic institutions to help the Commission in pursuit of this endeavor.

In this context, the Commission organized Stage 2 of the Capacity Building Workshop on Competition Assessment of seven select legislations / polices with the empanelled institutions and CCI officers. The workshop was held during 8th-9th, December, 2016 at IICA, Manesar, Gurugram. It was inaugurated by Sh. Devender K. Sikri, Chairman, CCI and Mr. Augustine Peter , Member CCI delivered the introductory address. Dr. S. Machendranathan Chairman Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, Mr. Sudhir Mittal, Member, Ms. Smita Jhingran, Secretary and Mr. Nitin Gupta DG, CCI also graced the occasion. Ex-Chairperson Sh. Dhanender Kumar kindly chaired the discussion on Model Agriculture Produce and Marketing Committee (APMC) Act.

Given the expertise of OECD in the area of competition assessment, the Commission also invited representatives from OECD. The OECD representatives – Mr. Sean Ennis, Senior Economist and Ms. Lynn Robertson, Global Relations Co-ordinator highlighted the objectives and importance of Competition Assessment and how it is helpful in developing countries. They also provided an overview of the OECD toolkit on competition assessment and shared their country wise experiences.

As part of this exercise, draft competition assessments of the seven select legislations prepared by the empanelled institutes and CCI officers were put across for brainstorming and discussion. The main objective of this exercise is to evaluate and further improve upon these draft competition assessment. The OECD representatives played a crucial role in advising and providing feedbacks on these Assessments done by the empanelled institutions and the CCI officials.

Out of the seven legislations, two legislations namely National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), 2016 and APMC Act, 2003 were discussed at length. The session on NCAP was kindly graced by Dr. S. Machendranathan, Chairman of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority who appreciated the initiative taken by the Commission. He provided insights on the rationale behind the provisions on which competition concerns were raised. He further emphasized that the process of policy making is gradual in nature and recognized the importance of competition. The OECD representatives also gave their insights on the competition concerns raised in both the Acts on the basis of their experience in other countries. Overall, the workshop was well appreciated and proved to be insightful and a successful knowledge sharing experience.

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