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DC Debate: Can net neutrality aid digital India

DC debates if net neutrality in India is the need of the hour or mere a buzz

Hyderabad:

Net neutrality is absolute necessity:

In my opinion, net neutrality is essential for both customers and entrepreneurs as it deeply affects both the communities. If you do not have net neutrality, entrepreneurs will suffer significantly because no matter how great their product or service is, they will not have the capital to compete with the monopolistic players of their respective industries.

In the fast-paced economy that we live in today, the conditions are dramatically different when compared to the rest of the world. By far, the Internet serves as a predominant medium where small businesses see a ray of hope required in order to stay motivated about the success of their business. With net neutrality gone, large players with deep pockets will vie to get their services in the front line, leaving no opportunity whatsoever for the small players.
Absence of freedom of the Internet will create an enormous entry barrier for the entrepreneurs and small businesses. In a free market economy such as India, it has to be a level playing field for all the players. Otherwise, the big players with financial resources to back them up will eat up the entire market share.
Even from a customer’s perspective, it is not a good thing. It is only with the power of the Internet that startups and entrepreneurs today are able to generate awareness about their product or service. It is only with the Internet acting as a medium that the customer is aware of the variety of choices he has. Without net neutrality, this luxury to the customers is also lost and this provision to the startups/entrepreneurs is lost. Net neutrality is an essential tool for any country that exists as a democratic society. We need net neutrality to foster innovation, to build the spirit of healthy competition.
The lack of this implies the death of innovation because no matter how good the product is, without the right kind of resources to show it to the world, it will eventually cease to exist. Safir Adeni, President, The Indus Entrepreneur, Hyderabad
Limited Internet is better than nothing:
More than a serious policy matter, talking or rather supporting net neutrality in India has become a cool thing. The other day my aunt from Itarsi stood for it. Well, it was only later I realised that she is actually talking about ‘Internet mein samaanta’ by which she meant that service providers should not discriminate their data services by giving low speed to poor people and higher speed to the rich ones.
I couldn’t dare to stand up against her version for obvious family relationship reasons. On a more serious note, her reason to support net neutrality was quite innocent, highly irrelevant, misleading yet not so shocking. Not shocking because like her a lot of us are misinformed on this hot topic.
In my opinion, with changing times, formats, trends and usage, the government should redefine net neutrality by its dynamics, rather than getting carried away by the buzz and getting jittery about politics in saving the interest of the consumers etc.
If a user can afford only limited browsing, what’s wrong? It’s fair that he pays only for the service used. DTH and cable connections are classic examples of acute dynamism, you use it, you pay for it. And if you can’t, you can happily watch Doordarshan. On the other hand, in India, many still don’t have access to data or mobile Internet because it is expensive. So Facebook’s initiative internet.org or the zero-ratings plan could be some of the possible solutions to encourage higher Internet penetration in India.
For crores of Indians, it would give some connectivity, which is better than having no connectivity. Also, overall data speed and access will increase if people opt for only selective websites of their choice; this will make the Internet surfing more efficient.
No policy can keep all the stakeholders happy. The government should frame a ‘dynamic’ policy in the larger interest of the Internet and its useful and productive expansion in the country. Nitin Tanksale, Chief Executive Officer, Sipper Global Informatics
( Source : dc )
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