Flexible competition framework key to India's digital economy, experts say at The Dialogue conference

India is moving fast towards building a digital economy that can compete globally. The question is how to keep markets open and competitive without holding back innovation, investment and the growth of startups. The issue was discussed in depth at the fourth annual international conference of The Dialogue.

The conference theme was "Competition, Innovation and Growth: Foundations of India's Digital Economy". Experts stressed three major challenges: widening the digital reach of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); strengthening India's AI ecosystem globally; and shaping a balanced competition policy in view of the world's economic conditions.

Dr Lazar Radic, assistant professor at IE Law School and senior scholar at ICLE, said that a flexible competition framework that works on the merits of each case, rather than imposing strict ex-ante rules in digital markets in advance, is more effective in protecting consumers and promoting innovation.

Shankar A. Singham, chairman of the Competere Group, said pre-set rules raise compliance costs for smaller companies. A developing economy should therefore choose a framework that gives businesses the freedom to compete and invest. Elisa Ramundo, founder of Scope Global Exchange, said the real value of technology lies in its actual use and adoption at scale. Making full use of existing capabilities is the better route in policy terms, she said.

Kazim Rizvi, founding director of The Dialogue, spoke of the need for an evidence-based and forward-looking digital competition framework for India. He said the emergence of generative AI is shifting market boundaries. Rather than bringing in a new strict ex-ante regime, he said, the enforcement capacity of the Competition Commission of India should be strengthened, specialised expertise should be built under its Digital Markets Division, and improving the working of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal should be prioritised. In his view, this would allow competition problems to be resolved without jolting startups and investment.

The conference also held a special discussion on the findings of The Dialogue's study from early 2026, "Competition, Innovation and Market Structure in India's AI Ecosystem". According to the study, 85% of India's AI developers depend on public cloud, and 74.5% of developers say compute providers are available in good numbers. Some 96.2% of developers use open-source tools, and more than 79% consider open-source models better than proprietary options.

On the demand side, 85% of businesses said they got good results from using AI. Of these, 61% cited better decision-making and 55% cited faster service delivery. Some 74% of consumers said AI had improved their experience of digital services. The study says these findings make clear that India's competition policy should actively support innovation, skill development and wider use of AI rather than impose strict restrictions.