India names former senior tourism official as head of antitrust body

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has named Ravneet Kaur as chairperson of the country's antitrust body, the Competition Commission of India, for a period of five years, according to a government order seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Kaur has held several positions in the government over the last two decades, including as chairperson of India Tourism Development Corp between 2017 and 2019, Kaur's LinkedIn profile showed.

The appointment comes after months of delay in appointing the head of the watchdog, which many antitrust lawyers said has slowed the functioning of the body.

The commission is investigating some of the world's biggest companies including Apple , Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart for alleged anti-competitive practices.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi and Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)