India’s Competition Commission to co-chair merger working group of ICN

India has been invited to co-chair the merger working group of the International Competition Network (ICN) for the next year, the other co-chairs being competition authorities of the European Commission and Italy.

The co-chair ship of the group would provide India an opportunity for participating in developing a harmonised global framework for merger review and learning from the experiences of other jurisdictions, an official release said today.

Ashok Chawla, chairperson of Competition Commission of India (CCI), participated in the plenary session of merger working group and shared India's experience in introducing the merger review process, which has come into effect in the country from 1 June 2011.

In particular, he shared the institutional building efforts made in CCI to equip the officials with necessary skills to review the mergers from competition point of view and the framing of regulations for laying the procedural architecture as well as management of the external environment.

This is recognition of India's success in introducing the merger review process through the robust regulatory structure and engaging with the stakeholders to allay their fears and concern through continued dialogue, the release said.

ICN, a network of competition authorities across the world, organised its eleventh annual conference in Rio de Janerio, Brazil during 17-20 April.