Create digital market first

There are broad similarities between the regulatory framework of the Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) regime and the proposed Digital Competition Law. The MRTP Act and other economic regulations of that period invariably were a drag on economic and technological development.

And it took many years of protracted rolling back of that over-regulated regime. The Competition Act, 2002, was introduced as part of the liberalisation process and to replace the MRTP Act, 1969, which, even after a number of amendments, remained at odds with the emerging liberalised regime in India.