National Level Essay Competition 2014 Organised By Cuts Institute For Regulation & Competition (Circ) 

Background
During past two decades, there has been a global surge in adoption of competition policy and economic regulation in developing economies. It is believed that effective competition and independent regulation together contribute to economic growth and welfare, while creating an environment that favours change, innovation and improvement.

Being exposed to competitive forces not only improves the competitiveness of businesses in their respective localities but also provides the impetus for companies to grow and take on global competitors on the international front. In addition, an enlightened competition regime helps to attract foreign investments into a country. With a strong and credible competition regime in place, foreign investors have greater confidence that they will be competing on a level-playing field.

Economic regulation has become ingrained in the modem economy, for good or ill. Because its effects are uncertain, regulation has stirred growing professional debate and political reaction. This volume presents a series of research papers on the issue that treat a variety of points and industrial sectors. After a long and checked history, economic regulation has recently become even more controversial, challenged for being ineffectual and economically harmful.

With Competition Policy and Economic Regulation so deeply in flux, research and debate are unusually active. There is a need to draw together the work from many directions, to try to apply analysis consistently in clarifying the industries, the regulatory processes, and their results.

With an attempt to explore and nourish the talents of the students, to demonstrate their writing skills, as well express their outlook on current national issues CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC) organised a National Level Essay competition 2014 in association with NLUD as Institutional Partner and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF)/ Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) as Principal Partners and Lex Witness as official magazine partner, under two broad categories:

Category A: Competition Policy & Law
Category B: Economic Regulation

The essay competition this year received 26 entries. The topics this year were quite challenging but the standard was extremely high and the vast majority of essays were impressive pieces of work. This made it a very pleasant task to read through the essays but a very difficult task to judge the competition.

Only a small proportion of the essays, however, could be acknowledged and given prizes, and it is an indication of the high standard that this year, apart from top three essay in each Category A and Category B, we decided to send out three certificates of Commendation.

It was pleasing to note that almost all entrants observed the need for referencing and acknowledging the ideas of others. There was also very little sign of reliance upon unreliable material from the internet, and it was particularly good to see that most entries carefully referenced any internet pages that had been used. The strongest entries showed evidence of wide reading of secondary material as well as good deployment of original sources in order to back up their arguments, and good referencing of data and ideas.

Prize Winners:

Category A (Competition Policy & Law)	Category B (Economic Regulations)
First Prize (Rs. 20,000): Ms. Garima Shahani / Mr. Thomas J Vallianeth (National Law University, Jodhpur) Second Prize (Rs. 10,000): Mr. Rohit Sharma (Kurukshetra University and Student of CIRC-NLUD CPL Course) Third Prize (Rs. 5,000): Tie between two participants (Prizes are divided equally) (i) Ms. Pratichi Mishra (National Law University, Delhi) (ii) Mr. Suraj Kumar Singh (National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi).	First Prize (Rs. 20,000): Ms. Aanchal Basur (West Bengal National Law University of Judicial Sciences) Second Prize (Rs. 10,000): Mr. Rishabh Kumar (Bharat Ratan Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Delhi) Third Prize (Rs. 5,000): We have not awarded any third prize in this category as the remaining entries were not up-to the mark.
Apart from above winners, Commendation Certificates were also awarded to following participants under Category A: Competition Policy & Law 1. Ms. Astha Srivastava / Ms. Shreya Dave (Gujarat National Law University) 2. Ms. Nidhi Singh (KIIT University, Bhubaneshwar/ CIRC-NLUD course)

Award Distribution Ceremony
To honour the achievement of winners, CIRC organised an Award Distribution Ceremony on July 16, 2014 at MOOT Court Room- National Law University Delhi- Sector 14, Dwarka, New Delhi.

To boost the morale of young and vibrant participants and to appreciate their hard work and dedication, the panel of some esteemed people including: Mr Pradeep Mehta (Chairman, Managing Committee, CIRC); Professor (Dr.) Ranbir Singh (Vice Chancellor, NLUD); Dr. S.K.D Rao (Registrar, NLUD), Mr. Arun Talwar (COO, CIRC) and Dr. Harpreet Kaur (Professor , NLUD) were present during the ceremony. Mr. Lalit Bhasin, President. SILF could not attend due to ill-health.

The ceremony preluded with a welcome address by Mr. Pradeep Mehta. He gave a warm welcoming speech signifying the need and increasing importance of Competition Law and Economic Regulation in India. By laying different examples- including that of electricity and aviation sector, he affirmed that India is in desperate need to form more sectoral regulators. He also emphasised that there is a dire need to implement the procedures effectively. In the end, he expressed pleasure and excitement for being among the youth. He said that the students are the real asset of the nation, therefore, they must utilise their maximum strength by actively participating in these writing competitions to enhance and share their knowledge.

After that, Dr. Harpreet Kaur addressed the audience by giving a brief overview about the growing importance of Competition Law and effective Economic Regulation in India, where she addressed the need for effective functioning of Competition Commission of India (CCI) and also stressed the important role played by DG in CCI while passing any decision. After drawing upon the importance, Dr Kaur gave a brief overview of the National Level Essay Competition 2014 and requested the participants to continue on working on the lines of their interests by actively participating in various competitions organised in future.

Referring to activities of the National Law University Delhi, Dr. Ranbir Singh shared his experience as to how CIRC and NLUD joined hands to enhance knowledge and strengthen the capacity. In his address, Dr. Singh presented the detailed information of the activities being undertaken jointly by the organisation and university. Dr. Singh also encouraged the participants to enhance their knowledge and research on Competition law and Economic Regulation which will help them in developing their career in future.

After the enlightening speech, the dignitaries distributed awards and certificates among the high achievers and congratulated them for their success and suggested them to continue their hard work and contribution by taking part in such writing competitions, so as to master their writing skills and contribute towards academic field.

The ceremony concluded by Vote of Thanks by Dr. S.K.D Rao, who thanked all the esteemed dignitaries and participants, team of CIRC and other associated partners for organising these kinds of competitions to boost the morale of young and vibrant students.

Feedback
The participants appreciated the efforts of CIRC for organising such essay competition which enable them to share their thoughts and views on the recent emerging issue in and around the world.

I appreciate the efforts of CIRC by conducting a National Level Essay Competition in the field of Competition Law and further congratulate on successful completion of the same. According to me, its the first National Level Essay Competition in India in the field of competition law. For me it was a great intellectual experience, I enjoyed writing and sharing ideas and reading other entries of those awarded. According to me this competition is awesome! And the book of all the winning entries provides me precious knowledge about what I have never known before.
– Mr Rohit Sharma

(Second Winner under Category A- Competition Policy & Law)
It’s been an honour for me to be a part of the National Level Essay Competition organised by CIRC…I would like to thank CIRC and other partners for providing such a platform to students to explore themselves. In future, I look forward to participate in such competitions and further enhance and sharpen my skills.
– Mr. Rishabh Kumar

(Second Winner under Category B- Economic Regulation)
This was for the first time CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC) organised a National Level Essay Competition and with kind support of its association partners and active participation of students from various universities. The organisation was successful in achieving its aim for conducting the essay competition. CIRC will be holding these kinds of competitions in coming years. All the winning entries were printed in the form of a book and distributed. These will also be printed in ‘Lex Witness’ magazine in full or in abridged form.

About CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC)
CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC) was established in 2008 by Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS International). CUTS was established in 1983 and has been a leading NGO in the world working on competition law and policy issues (www.cutsinternational.org). With this legacy, CIRC is an initiative towards creating an intellectual and knowledge base on competition policy and law and issues relating to infrastructure regulation such as public-private partnerships, regulatory impact assessment. It is governed by a 17 member Governing Council, presided over by Mr Nitin Desai, former Under Secretary General of the UN. Its founder President was Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, who is now President Emeritus. The Council includes several eminent persons from among economists, judges and government officials. CIRC and CUTS have conducted many programmes on Competition Policy and Law in India and abroad. (For further details, please visit www.circ.in)

CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition
R-75, 1st Floor, Greater Kailash-1, New Delhi-110048

About National Law University Delhi (NLUD)
National Law University, Delhi established in 2008 by Act No.1 of 2008 of National Capital Territory of Delhi and with the initiative of High Court of Delhi is a premier law university in India. The vision of the University is to create a Global Legal Institution which will compete with the best outside India and to prepare lawyers for a legal career that introduces them to wide range of opportunities in legal profession across the globe. The University’s State of Art campus is located at Sector 14, Dwarka, New Delhi, close to the Delhi airport, with all facilities for best of learning and research.
National Law University, Delhi
Sector-14, Dwarka, New Delhi-110078

About Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF)
SILF is the apex body of law firms in India. SILF was established in the year 2000 with the aim of protecting, safeguarding and promoting the interests of law firms in India. The Bar Associations of the different courts in India represent the individual members of the legal profession in India. Law firms have not been historically represented in an organized and streamlined manner. A dire need was felt to form an association of this kind in view of various aspects of the practice of law that are peculiar to law firms in contradistinction to the role of individual practicing lawyers.

The members of SILF include the top most law firms in India. SILF strives to create an atmosphere that has enabled Indian law firms to match the technology, manpower skill and the infrastructure that most of the foreign law firms possess.

SILF serves as a forum for exchange of ideas and information as also a medium for interaction with the government, the judiciary and the bureaucracy. SILF has achieved many laurels amongst them being internationally recognized by IBA (International Bar Association), the UIA (Union International des Avocats) as well as by LAWASIA.

About Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) (Set up by Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India)
SEPC, an Export Promotion Council set by this Department, is an apex trade body to facilitate service exporters of India and serving as a platform of interaction between service exporters and policymakers. SEPC has been instrumental in promoting the efforts of Indian service exporting community. The Council has Completed 6 years of its existence and got a strong membership base of more than 1800 members from its 14 service sectors which come under the purview of SEPC and almost 250 members have registered themselves in the council during the financial year 2012-13.

The management of SEPC vests with the Central Governing Council elected by members. Eminent personalities i.e. Shri Lalit Bhasin, renowned Advocate, is the Chairman, Dr. Naresh Trehan, renowned Cardiologist, is the Vice-Chairman of the Council and Ms. Amrit Raj, Director, Deptt. of Commerce, is the Director General.

Bharat Ratan Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Delhi
Christ University, Bangalore
DDU Gorakhpur University
Gujarat National Law University
ILAMS College, Gugaon
Karnataka State University
Kurukshetra University
Mahatma Gandhi University
National Law University, Delhi
National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi
National Law University, Jodhpur
West Bengal National Law University of Judicial Sciences