Publish Date: 2023-10-17 11:44:19
Digital platforms are essentially multi-sided markets in which the tendency to grow big is inborn due to the profound network effects. There have been passionate appeals for regulating the digital space as competition (or lack thereof) in the sector today is between large conglomerates with potentially deleterious impact on markets. Big-tech, as these conglomerates are now called, are alleged to have distorted market competition by indulging in various kinds of behaviour such as predatory acquisitions and slowing or killing innovation, data monetisation and abuse, search violations and subversion of democracy. In February 2020, the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation reported that online targeting systems have 'helped to put a handful of global online platform businesses in positions of enormous power to predict and influence behaviour'. The talk will explore firm behaviour in digital markets and what do digital platforms mean for inclusivity in the Indian context. It will also consider regulation of data and other laws that may be required for governance of the digital marketplace.
Rajat Kathuria is Dean of, the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, and Professor of Economics at Shiv Nadar University. He carries over 20 years of experience in teaching and more than 15 years of experience in economic policy, besides pursuing extensive research on a range of issues relating to regulation and competition policy. Dr Kathuria served as Director and Chief Executive at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) before joining the University.
He has taught undergraduate Economics at the University of Maryland, USA, and spent over 12 years with the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi teaching post-graduate students Managerial Economics and International Trade. He has also previously worked with the World Bank in Washington D.C. as a Consultant and worked on research assignments for a number of international organizations, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), United National Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), LirneAsia, The World Bank and The Asian Development Bank (ADB). Dr. Kathuria’s work has been published in several journals of repute as well as in top magazines and newspapers across the world. He serves on multiple industry and government Committees such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Committee on International Trade Policy and Exports, the Implementation for Intended Determined Contribution (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India), and on the Research Advisory Council of the State Bank of India (SBI).