In our post titled “Executive Actions And Indian Competition Law:A Premise”, we tried to develop a premise on when the executive actions may be considered anti-competitive under the Competition Act. In an attempt to grow on that post, a recent article in Mint titled “Ending India’s Food Cartels“ helps us to further stress on the point in the above post. The article focuses on the monopoly of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC’s).

While I do not entirely agree with the article ( APMC’s cannot be considered for anti-competitive practices, the reasons for which please read the previous posts and “hoarding” by the FCI is forgetting the fact that the FCI is also the organisation to manage the buffer stocks of the country), I do feel there may be a case against the FCI with regards some of its procurement policies. However, only a detailed in-dept investigation can reveal more.