The top brass of eight Indian tech startups, which also includes Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Oyo’s Ritesh Agarwal, is meeting with a parliamentary panel to discuss the market issues of tech platforms amidst the rising anti-competition crises. Former union minister and BJP leader Jayant Sinha will chair the parliamentary standing committee on finance which will dive into the different aspects of competition in the market, especially related to the tech sectors.
Recently Sinha enunciated that the panel has summoned the representatives of different tech platforms, e-commerce executives and startup executives to discuss market behaviour and patterns. Top executives from food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy, e-commerce company Flipkart, cab-hailing aggregator Ola, hotel-related startup Oyo, fintech startup Paytm, travel aggregator MakeMyTrip and All India Gaming Association are the companies which are summoned before the panel, according to Sinha.
According to a notice published on the Lok Sabha website, the committee will be listening to the “views of representatives of associations/industry stakeholders on the subject Anti-Competitive Practices by Big-tech companies” on July 21. Some sources suggest that Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ola CFO Arun Kumar, Make My Trip Chairman and Chief Mentor Deep Kalra, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, Oyo founder and Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal, have been verified to the panel to attend. Furthermore, Swiggy’s Vice President and group general Counsel Avantika Bajaj, Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishna Murthy and All India Gaming Federation CEO Roland Landers are also expected to join the meeting. Recently, there have been complaints about alleged anti-competitive ways of different technology platforms and firms.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is already investigating various cases, particularly in the digital space, following objections to alleged unfair business practices. On April 28, the CCI delivered a presentation about anti-competition factors in the market to the parliamentary panel.
