Pragya Yadav
4th Year student of B.A, LL.B (H),
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University
Abstract
With the advent of globalization and liberalization, there was a sudden rise in the growth of new ideas and trade practices. This lead to an increased competition between the market players, thus the whole proposition on which the basics of competition law are based is that “the purpose of competition law is to foster and promote competitive practices and to avert business practices that are anti-competitive in spirit and detrimental to the general interests of the consumers. The whole rationale behind inception of this law is that there should be fair competition in the market. Every market player should be capable of contributing to the inclusive growth of the country by exercising his or her freedom of trade. The evolution of Competition law would be incomplete without the discussion on the kind of economy we had after independence. So after independence in 1947, the Indian economy was based on the Nehruvian Model, which is primarily a mixed economy model in which the private sector and the state co-existed. This kind of economy has a blend of Capitalism and Socialism. It focuses on progressive economic growth along with social welfare. With passage of time, the whole persona of the mixed economy started changing to monopoly of resources by the private entities. This affected the fulcrum and balance that existed between the public and the private sector. To restrain this concentration of power in private sector, a new enactment was passed i.e., The MRTP Act. Its objective was to control the monopolistic trade practices and regulate the accumulation of resources in common hands. The MRTP Act is called the antecedent of the present Competition Act, 2002. The key difference between the two legislations is that the latter promotes competition while the other restricts monopolistic trade practices.
Keywords: Competition law in India, CCI, MRTP, mixed economy, Indian economy
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