Govt names Ravneet Kaur as Chairperson of Competition Commission of India

The Indian government has named Ravneet Kaur as the Chairperson of antitrust body, Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a period of five years. Since former Chairman Ashok Kumar Gupta demitted office in October 2022, there has been no full-time chairperson of CCI.

CCI member Sangeeta Verma has been acting as the Chairperson since October 2022. 

Ravneet Kaur is a 1988 Punjab cadre IAS officer. Her appointment will be for a period of five years or till the date of attaining 65 years of age, whichever is earlier, the official government order dated May 15 stated. 

Kaur will get a consolidated salary of Rs 4,50,000 per month without a house and car, it said. 

Before she was appointed the Chairperson of CCI, Kaur held various other government positions in her career spanning over two decades. 

She was the Director at Department of Economic Affairs for two years from 2006-08, after which she was the Joint Secretary at the Department of Financial Services for 3.5 years from 2008 to 2011. 

Kaur served as the Principal Secretary of the Punjab government for 11 months from 2012 to 2013, following which she was the Principal Secretary Cabinet, Coordination and Parliamentary Affairs for the Punjab government for a little over 1 year from 2014 to 2015. 

In 2015, Kaur was appointed as the Joint Secretary Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, where she was responsible for industrial licencing for defence, aerospace and explosives sectors among a list of other responsibilities. 

Kaur was appointed the Chairperson and Managing Director (CMD) of India Tourism Development Corporation in 2017, where she served till 2019. 

In 2019, Ravneet Kaur was appointed the Additional Chief Secretary of the Punjab government, and was also given the charge of Additional Chief Secretary & Financial Commissioner at the Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management. 

The appointment comes after months of delay in appointing the head of the watchdog, which has reportedly slowed down the functioning of the body.

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