Google appoints former NITI Aayog, CCI official as India public coverage chief

Google has appointed Archana Gulati — a former official with the NITI Aayog and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) — as its public coverage head in India efficient this week, a Google India spokesperson instructed The Indian Express.

Gulati was Joint Secretary, Digital Communications at NITI Aayog from August 2019 to April 2021, previous to which she served as an Officer on Special Duty with the Secretary of Telecom for greater than two years.

From June 2014 to June 2016, she served as a senior official on the CCI mergers and acquisitions, in response to her LinkedIn profile. Gulati’s appointment comes at a time when the federal government and the antitrust watchdog are more and more shining the highlight on practices adopted by big-tech firms which have up to now operated in regulatory blindspots.

This 12 months alone, the CCI ordered a probe into Alphabet Inc, the dad or mum firm of Google, over allegations that the search large has indulged in “abuse of dominance in news aggregation” and compelled unfair phrases on digital information publishers. In a unique case, the CCI revealed preliminary findings of a case towards Google, the place it termed the Android proprietor’s billing system for app builders as “unfair and discriminatory”, paving the best way for potential penalties.