Facebook’s Zukerberg likely to push Free Basics on India visit
19 Oct 2015
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is planning his second visit to India on 28 October, exactly one month after he met Prime Minister, Zukerberg announced on his Facebook page on Friday.
In the post, Zuckerberg said he would be hosting a townhall Q&A at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, answering queries from across Facebook and also from a live audience at IIT-Delhi.
Earlier Zuckerberg had said that India is personally very relevant to the history of Facebook. He had shared his memory about Apple founder Steve Jobs, one of his mentors, persuading him to visit India. As a result, Zuckerberg travelled in the country for nearly a month, and realised how much better the world could be if every human had a better ability to connect.
This is something on the top of his mind over the last decade as he and his team built Facebook.
One of the main topics that came up during Modi's visit was universal internet access. Zuckerberg, who advocates universal internet access as a fundamental human right, had also appealed to the Indian Prime Minister by articulating support for the 'Digital India' campaign before Modi's visit.
India is apparently the predominant focus for Facebook's Free Basics initiative. Earlier recognized as Internet.org, it's an open platform across 19 developing countries by Facebook (See: Facebook rebrands Internet.org to 'Free Basics', expands Indian operations).
The initiative attempts convenient access of selected apps as well as app-based services to common people at no charge.
Facebook had partnered with Reliance Communications to give free access to around 30 websites. However, the selective angle of Internet.org came in for criticism from several quarters (See: WWW founder slams Facebook's 'Free Basics' move).
India is a strategic market for Facebook, with over 130 million users. India also makes up the largest app developer community for Facebook outside of the United States. (See: Net neutrality not relevant to Free Basics: Zuckerberg).
The upcoming visit by Zuckerberg would be keenly awaited.