From Kotkhai, a small Himalayan village in India to Harvard Law School and then to Jindal Global Law School as an Assistant Professor. Sidharth Chauhan overcame a lot of challenges as a first-generation lawyer, while also helping others. During the pandemic, the Indian lawyer managed to spread awareness about COVID-19 and gave employment to those in need. For this effort, he was awarded the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership by Harvard Law School. We sat down with the University of Gdańsk’s guest lecturer and talked about the competition law in India, the current situation in the AI market and the challenges of moving to a big city. 

Marcel Jakubowski: – You’re about to give a lecture at the University of Gdańsk’s Faculty of Law. What is it going to be about? 

Sidharth Chauhan: – I will be focusing on competition law in developing countries, such as India, with a targeted emphasis on digitalization. I’m interested in how developing nations need to change and amend their laws to regulate digital economies. For example, the European Commission has moved very quickly in the digitalisation space and passed the Digital Markets Act and related regulations. I want to research and find ways in which developing countries can also regulate digital companies in the most effective way while being mindful of the local market conditions. 

– You mentioned the European Union. I’ve read about your thoughts about the Competition Commission of India, but first, you want to research the Western approach to things. How does the current state of India's competition law differ from that of the EU?

– This is a very interesting question. Our Competition Law Act was enacted in 2002. It is a fairly new legislation and an area of law in India. The matured and advanced jurisdictions like those in the US and EU are excellent ways to frame a competition policy. We derive our jurisprudence from the  E.U. competition law, so I want to gain experience in these advanced jurisdictions and then apply these principles when I return to my country and see what kind of changes we need. I would say that Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union have some similarities with the provisions in the Indian Competition Law Act. Given that India’s market condition differs from that of the EU and as I mentioned, India is a developing economy, that’s what the law has been tailored to. Since the US and the EU are much more advanced jurisdictions with respect to competition law, it’s important to look at the precedents and understand them in the right context while keeping in mind the market conditions for the specific country.

– Are India’s regulations appropriate for the current state of your market? Or should those laws be revised and changed?

– For the longest time, we've been using one version of the Competition Act, and we felt that we need to do something specific for digital companies.  Recently, India has come up with the Competition Amendment Bill, 2023, where we have brought in certain provisions for regulating digital companies in particular. For example, we are introducing a deal value threshold specifically for mergers of digital companies. India is seeing a rise in a lot of startups and they rely heavily on digitalization. We will see if the recent changes in our competition law will help new firms to innovate and develop their technology. 

– Let’s go back to the US and EU. The hot, new technology right now is AI, but there are only two significant players on the market -  DeepMind and OpenAI. The first one is owned by Google and the second is heavily funded by Microsoft. Do you think this duopoly is something that the government should be concerned about? 

– Yes, while I completely understand the kind of advantages big tech has brought us, we have to remember what kind of impact those companies have on the economy. If there is any use of current technologies for fixing pricing or limiting output or dividing customers and if that causes some sort of appreciable adverse effect in competition, I would say that the governments have to step up. They have to regulate big tech. They are answerable to ensure that big companies are not using their strength in the market to gain an unjust advantage. While it is OK to employ different strategies or techniques and innovate, one has to be always mindful that big tech companies cannot be dominant. We don't want that, we want a sizable amount of players in the market. If it's not possible, I would say that government intervention is required. 

– I saw you write poems about the pandemic and other subjects. In Poland, we have a famous poet - Czesław Miłosz, who won a Nobel Prize in Literature. He's also a law graduate. A few other Polish poets also graduated from law. Why do they go together - law and poetry?

– I see the law as an amalgam of meaningful words put together. Every word has a meaning. Nothing is written without a reason. So if something is there, you can uncover its meaning. Maybe this sentence is here to protect you or to warn you. Poetry is similar, each word signifies something. When I get some free time, I end up writing poems because it's the best way to express my thoughts. The expression or the intent might be different, but the thought process remains the same. Both lawyers and poets want a reader to have a meaningful understanding of those words; perhaps the only difference is that a lawyer would prefer her intent to be expressed in black and white, while the poet will shroud her intent in a magical cloud and take the reader through a journey of sparkling revelations and technicolour realizations!

– So lawyers and poets both need to have attention to detail?

– Correct. I think this is very important for the profession. If you want to be a lawyer -  attention to detail and due diligence are both essential aspects. Poets translate entire emotions into words, and without their keen senses and attention to detail, they will be unable to weave intricate stories into a string of meaningful rhythmical sentences.
 

– During the pandemic, you managed to change your home village for the better. Could you tell us more about Project CareONA? Was it hard to introduce new solutions to a very traditional place? 

– Project Care-ona is very close to my heart. I grew up in a small Himalayan village in India - Kotkhai. It's a few hours away from a very popular town in India – Shimla. I grew up surrounded by apple orchards, and greenery, it was always a source of enthusiasm for me and I loved the community around me. 

In March 2020, when Mumbai was under heavy lockdown due to an increase in COVID-19 instances, I was on the phone with a rural elder. He couldn't understand why the government was making such a fuss about wearing a mask; he said it was just a virus that would go away. This was someone extremely close to me, and he wasn't being cautious.

I realised that living in a city makes it so easy to get information, but what is simple for us is difficult for them. Given the state of India's grassroots healthcare system, if the virus spreads in rural areas, the consequences could be devastating. 

In my village, people still questioned or didn’t know a lot about the pandemic. I realized that I have to do something. I needed to spread reliable information about COVID-19 and make people aware that you need to wear a mask and that you need to be doing social distancing. 

So, I crowdfunded this initiative and we reached out to rural women in India. They’ve made masks for us, we’ve paid for them and then distributed them to the villagers. During the pandemic, especially in rural areas, people did not have enough sources of livelihood, because everything was in a complete lockdown. With the money we crowdfunded, we were able to generate some form of employment for these people. 

– Was generating employment your main goal? 

– No, this initiative was more about making people aware and making them feel safe. That's when I realised that it is so important to share what you have with the people, who you deeply care about. This was a small step towards building a sense of community. For this initiative, I was awarded by Harvard Law School and a leading news channel in India. We went wherever it was possible to distribute masks among people. This effort inspired similar events in other villages. My team grew in different parts of India. 

– Your situation is similar to that of a lot of students, who come from a small town and decide to study in a big city. When they come back to their home, with new knowledge and modern ideas, it’s hard for them to communicate with their families and communities. It seems like you managed to overcome this challenge. What advice would give to those students?

– My only advice: never forget who you are and where you come from. For me, it was quite difficult and rather daunting to move from a small town to a big city. Everything may look new and challenging to you. When I moved from my village, to the nearest town and then to one of the biggest cities in India, Mumbai. I did feel that this is very difficult and that I won’t be able to do it. But I kept looking back and reminding myself that I haven't come this far for nothing. Of course, as time passes, a veritable gap was created between my past and my present, and the future would only increase that chasm. In my view, it is important to recognise that distinction, and rather than allowing the gap to widen, use your maturity, knowledge and understanding to discover ways and means to re-communicate. Your family and childhood communities may not be where you are today in terms of success, but never forget that they were instrumental in shaping you to be who you are today, and that is why you are where you are today. So, putting aside one’s ego, learning patience and being sincere, honest, genuine and loving towards your families and communities goes a long way in maintaining and strengthening relationships. In my case, I love my family; they are my bedrock. And I adore my community. Nothing gives me more happiness than to stroll on a dreamy winter evening to the village square and chat with the elders on current affairs and local gossip while sipping piping hot tea from an earthen bowl. What I learnt is: if you show love and respect to your community, they will also make that effort to meet you halfway to bridge that gap; and things have a beautiful and magical way of just working out!