Skip to main content

Opinion on the free basics initiative by facebook

The free basics initiative by Facebook

Summary of the opinion:

·         There is a huge difference between being a gateway to the Internet and being a gatekeeper to the Internet, and Free Basics worryingly has all the makings of the latter.

·         It is about accumulating millions and millions of new users by offering products free, in the hope that the build-up could be milked for revenue in the years to come.

·         That’s the same tactic many start-ups use to show “traction” while pitching to big moneyed venture capitalists.

·         You find an unrestricted Internet economy with millions yet untapped in India.

·         Facebook  is identifying this need and bringing a sense of urgency to addressing it.

·         Credit is  due for the way its young founder Mark Zuckerberg has fought doggedly for the idea’s acceptance.

·         The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the regulator, has asked Facebook’s Free Basics partner in India, Reliance Communications, to put the service on hold.

·         The social media giant,Facebook showing little sign of backing off.

·         It’s both impressive and unsettling at the same time when one thinks about how a corporate, valued at over $300 billion, can spend so much money and effort on a controversial project that is not even avowedly a pure business venture.

·         Policy makers have to not only decide the fate of services such as Free Basics but also find ways to deliver digital equality fast.

·         For, Free Basics can’t be an excuse for the failures of the state in delivering universal access.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE OPINION

 



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inland Waterways in India

Here are some key points you need to know: The bill seeks to add 106 inland waterways to the existing six National Waterways on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture and comments of several state governments The bill will also look after the renovation and maintenance of the existing waterways Out of the 106 new waterways, 18 have already been identified. These include five waterways each from Karnataka and Meghalaya, three each from Maharashtra and Kerala, one each from Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan The bill also aims to help the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) to develop the feasible stretches for Shipping and Navigation. Let us look at the six existing National Waterways in India: National Waterway 1 (NW1) The National Waterway No. 1 uses a 1,620-kilometre stretch of the Ganges River. It was declared a national waterway in the year 1986 and runs from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal....
Post a Comment
Read more

Sessions of Indian National Congress

Sessions of Indian National Congress:: Year Venue President 1885, 1882 Bombay , Allahabad W.C.Bannerji 1886 Calcutta Dadabhai Naoroji 1893 Lahore " 1906 Calcutta " 1887 Madras Badruddin Tyyabji (fist Muslim President) 1888 Allahabad George Yule (first English President) 1889 Bombay Sir William Wedderburn 1890 Calcutta Sir Feroze S.Mehta 1895, 1902 Poona , Ahmedabad S.N.Banerjee 1905 Banaras G.K.Gokhale 1907, 1908 Surat , Madras Rasbehari Ghosh 1909 Lahore M.M.Malviya 1916 Lucknow A.C.Majumdar (Re-union of the Congress) 1917 Calcutta Annie ...
Post a Comment
Read more

India's Macroeconomy Post-Keynesian Insights.

Click Here for PDF version Market, Regulations and Finance: Global Meltdown and the Indian Economy edited by Ratan Khasnabis and Indrani Chakraborty; New Delhi and New York: Springer India, India Studies in Business and Economics, 2014; pp 266, price not indicated. Errol D’Souza ( errol@iimahd.ernet.in ) teaches Economics at IIM Ahmedabad. This is a book of articles on finance and the macroeconomy of India after the global financial crisis, written by those who have a perspective that the editors broadly describe as having a commonality with post-Keynesians. To me the essence of this approach is to stress that in a monetary production economy, the level of economic activity is set by the level of effective demand and that this is usually not consistent with full employment. The capitalist system based on free market principles is, in this view, inherently cyclical and unstable. Indeed, the first article in the book on an Indian perspective on monetary policy...
Post a Comment
Read more