Published : Friday, 05 December, 2014 11:45 AM
IIM Raipur and IIM Kashipur jointly organized the International Conference on Competitiveness, Competition Regulation and Corporate Strategy at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on 3rd December 2014. AZB & Partners, a reputed firm of advocates and solicitors acted as the knowledge partner, whereas the entire logistics of the conference was managed by the conference associate partner CKF (Corporate Knowledge Foundation). The conference was attended by about 100 delegates including academics, industry leaders, practising advocates, legal consultants, foreign delegates, and law and management students. The conference comprised of four technical sessions, which witnessed an enriching discussion and debate by the 16 key speakers, who are senior people from various stakeholders of competition regulation.
The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Dhruv M. Sawhney, former President of CII, and Chairman of IIM Kashipur as well as the Triveni group of companies. The first technical session on Regulation, Market Structure and Corporate Strategy, was regulated by Mr. AnuragGoel, former member of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The other members on the panel included Mr. John Pecman (Competition Bureau of Canada), Mr. DevdasBaliga (legal counsel with the Coca Cola Co) and Mr. Rajeev Agarwal (whole time member of market regulator SEBI). They discussed how the consumer should be considered an important stakeholder in the formulation and implementation of competition law, and also how the SEBI facilitates competition in the financial sector like stock exchanges, clearing houses and depositories.
The second session debated whether the Indian merger control regulations are moving towards a convergence or divergence vis-à-vis the various similar legislation worldwide. The panel was moderated by Mr. Samir Gandhi of AZB & Partners, and comprised of four international experts in this field, such as Ms. AniaThieman from the OECD, Mr. MuneshMahtani (a senior competition counsel at Google), Mr. Marc Reysen from Brussels and Mr. Dave Poddar, a partner at Clifford Chance. They provided various examples from their experience with global M&As in Europe, US and Australia.
The third session explored the linkages between competitiveness and management education, and thus comprised of senior academics from reputed institutions in India and abroad. Prof B S Sahay, Director of IIM Raipur, laid a strong platform for the discussion, by emphasizing the need to make drastic changes to our pedagogies and raise the competitiveness of our engineering and management institutions, by obtaining internationally recognised accreditation. Prof Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director of School of Management at Shiv Nadar University, took the audience through his journey as former Director of IIM Calcutta with respect to the process of obtaining accreditation and highlighted the importance of the aspirations of all stakeholders of the institute in helping it improve its global ranking and hence competitiveness. Prof Gilormini Patrick, Professor from ESDES Universite Catholique de Lyon (France) provided an idea of the role of the European Union’s Erasmus Mundus program, which aims to enhance quality in higher education through scholarships and academic cooperation between Europe and the rest of the world. Prof G Ramesh, Chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at IIM Bangalore, discussed how the academia-industry interactions and joint efforts can help improve competitiveness and that the government should provide the facilitating role and conducive environment to complete the triple helix structure.
The last session dwelled on the future direction of competition regulation in India, which included very insightful views on the role of penalties as a subset of market correction remedies by Mr. Ramji Srinivasan, a Senior Advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India. Mr. Percy Billimoria of AZB & Partners moderated the session and also suggested how to bring more clarity to the M&A regulation. Mr. AnuragGoel focused on the institutional issues and provided a framework for the CCI and COMPAT (Competition Appellate Tribunal) to make the right choices at crossroads, to move forward.
The conference concluded with the highly awaited valedictory address by retired Justice A. Pasayat, the former chairman of COMPAT and currently the Vice-chairman of the SIT on Black Money. The vote of thanks appreciated the insights provided by all the key speakers, and the participation of all the delegates, and also acknowledged the contribution of all the co-organizers of this conference.
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