India’s antitrust agency has appointed three new members to oversee the cases, including a former government official from the Commerce Ministry and a former interim compliance officer from WhatsApp, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The new appointees are Anil Agrawal, a former police officer who recently joined India’s Ministry of Commerce and worked on several startup initiatives and building the government’s e-commerce network, Open Network For Digital Commerce. He confirmed the appointment to Reuters but declined to comment further.
Two other appointments include Sweta Kakkad, a lawyer whose LinkedIn profile showed her as a former interim chief compliance officer at WhatsApp. The third appointee is Deepak Anurag, a former official who worked in India’s Comptroller and Auditor General.
Kakkad and Anurag were not available for comment. The appointment decisions have been finalized and taken by the federal government, the sources said.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) did not respond to questions from Reuters.
The appointments come at a time when CCI is investigating several high-profile global companies for alleged antitrust violations, including Amazon, Walmart’s Flipkart, Google and beverage giant Pernod Ricard.
The appointment of senior members is crucial to the functioning of the CCI. In May, India appointed Ravneet Kaur as chairman of the CCI. Kaur has held various positions in the government over the past two decades, including as chairman of India Tourism Development between 2017 and 2019.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
