A team of four students and a research associate at National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) headed by Tilottama Raychaudhury, Assistant Professor at NUJS concluded drafting a policy comment on the Draft National Competition Policy Statement and have submitted the same to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

This was done in response to the comments invited by MCA from the public in the last week of July. The last date for submission of comments was August 22, 2011. The team at NUJS decided to research and make certain observations to the Draft National Competition Policy and submit the same to the MCA.

The team members included Jaimini Vyas, Madhulika Kanuajia, Shayonee Dasgupta, Shouvik Kumar Guha (Research Associate, NUJS) and Shruti Jere.  Some of the team members spoke to Bar & Bench.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Ms. Tilottama said: "With the recent developments and controversies surrounding Competition law in India, the idea of a National Competition Policy is very timely. This policy is a much awaited step towards inculcating competition law principles in various policies and laws which have the potential to affect competition in the Indian market. It is indeed very heartening that the Ministry is actively seeking suggestions from all stakeholders on the new policy, as the latter appears to have far reaching implications vis-a-vis many other existing policies and legislations.  A group of us from NUJS decided to research on this subject and submit our comments to the Ministry. The policy, though a laudable initiative, has several loopholes which need to be addressed before questions of implementation can arise.  We hope that our research evokes further discussion on the National Competition Policy. This may be a small way that we as members of a law school can generate more debate on this issue and also contribute to the larger policy making process."

Shayonee Dasgupta, one of the team members observed: "This was indeed a much needed exercise and was truly a very enriching experience. We decided to not only provide a criticism to the draft policy statement but also to provide suggestions regarding viable solutions. I believe that all stakeholders play a vital role in the arena of policy making and therefore invitation of public comment and scrutiny of upcoming policy initiatives is an excellent starting point of multifaceted deliberations."

Jaimini Vyas further added, "This was a truly exciting opportunity to be able to be a part of the policy making process as a stakeholder. The work was born out of intense brainstorming among the writers, and was exhausting and occupying, but it was exciting and challenging and we had a lot of fun doing it. We're already looking forward to tackling another project!".

This is a great initiative by a law school to participate in the policy making process. 

Comment on Draft National Competition Policy