India, May 20 -- Markets must work for many and not just for a few, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday, adding that a sudden spike in the electronic way of doing business and digital commerce globally posed new challenges for competition watchdogs to protect the free market spirit.

She called democratising the market principle the key to safeguarding the spirit of liberalisation, referring to India's policy shift in the 1990s. "The enactment of the Competition Act in 2002 was a landmark reform in India's journey from a centrally planned regime. to a market-driven one, and making the Competition Commission a key institution in safeguarding the spirit of liberalisation while checking its excesses," she said at the Co...