Free Basics and Net Neutrality.

Adhering to Basics & Freedom is a wonderful Leaders piece in 'The Hindu'  which captures the nuances of the 'Net Neutrality' and the leadership role played by our regulator at TRAI. (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).

The key take away from this master piece, from my view are: "The latest ruling could no doubt set the tone for regulators across the globe, especially those of countries that have socio-economic features akin to India’s. More important, it would ensure that generations of Indians are not forced to be satisfied with services that pretend to be the Internet itself, robbing them of the real benefits of the medium... The ruling also suggests that while TRAI recognises the need for India to bridge the digital divide, it realises that compromising the basic ideals of the Internet is not the way to do it."

Another interesting dimension to this ruling is the complexity of the net and the way it is shaping up. In another interesting piece in The Hindu titled How Zuckerberg Got the Blues' the columnist brings out the internal concepts which have emerged in the ecosystem of internet of things to grab more of the dollars being increasingly made available on this platform, by tweaking the basics without he knowledge of the user.

All of these concepts, are basically working to wean away the customer to a corner as in a typical showroom. The attractive discounts and the prominent display, positioning in the show room and other tricks which are deployed in the malls and show rooms have their counterparts in the internet of things.

And that is alarming for the user who is not educated enough of the way these things work could easily be led astray. And that this is deliberately happening under the eyes of the regulators clearly demonstrate that not enough is being done to rein in this behaviour.

As  Sri Ram Sewak Sharma the TRAI chairman has shown to the world through his latest ruling, that glitz cannot sway the opinion of the informed, it is time for the rest of the world to take the cue and cooperate to bring in more transparency and change in behaviourial patterns of these organisaitons in the digital space, to chase their dollars while maintaining 'Net Neutrality' in the true spirit and letter.