Ravneet Kaur on Tuesday took charge as the Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India, becoming the first woman to hold the post on a full-time basis.Kaur, a 1988 Punjab cadre IAS officer, will be the fifth full-time Chairperson of the fair trade regulator, which started functioning in 2009.

“Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman had sworn in Smt. Ravneet Kaur as Chairperson, Competition Commission of India, & Smt. Ravneet Kaur took charge of the office of Chairperson, CCI, today i.e., on 23rd May 2023. #CCI,” the regulator said in a tweet.

On May 15, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of 59-year-old Kaur as CCI Chairperson. There was no full-time Chairperson for the competition regulator since Ashok Kumar Gupta demitted office in October 2022. CCI Member Sangeeta Verma had been acting as the Chairperson since October last year. Kaur has taken over the reins of CCI at a time when various cases related to digital space, including those pertaining to Google and Apple, are being pursued by the regulator. Also, CCI is dealing with all complaints related to GST profiteering.

Besides, various amendments to the competition law have been implemented.Before Kaur’s appointment, CCI had four full-time Chairpersons starting with Dhanendra Kumar in 2009. Others were Ashok Chawla, D K Sikri and Ashok Kumar Gupta.