Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) fends off Facebook Free Basics plan :

Bogged by the rising furore over the Net Neutrality issue, TRAI has ordered mobile operator Reliance Communications to stop offering Facebook’s “Free Basics” service to its customers.

 Free Basics is a suite of basic internet tools including news, travel, job listings and health services, offered free of cost to people in Asia, Africa and Latin America through partnership with operators.

 According to government sources, Reliance, which is  Facebook’s first partner in India,has complied with the directions of TRAI by stopping the said service.
Net neutrality is the cause: the question of whether operators – or, indeed, Facebook – should be allowed to decide which online services can be offered without data charges.
“The question has arisen whether a telecom operator should be allowed to have differential pricing for different kinds of content. Unless that question is answered, it will not be appropriate for us to continue to make that happen.”
Although Facebook’s initiative seems to be social but the financial angle which would favour some specific sites in generating high revenues cannot be neglected, as India is, still an unchartered territory with umpteen possibilities.
PM Modi's Town Hall event at Facebook’s headquarters in the US in September 2015, must not be construed as a go ahead to such plans as India is a much bigger Democracy albeit a Goliath, where even a small initiative affects millions.
“India at this point needs both physical and digital infrastructure,” said Modi at the event, while Zuckerberg revealed that he had changed his profile picture to include an Indian flag “to support Digital India, the Indian government’s effort to connect rural communities to the internet and give people access to more services online”.
Facebook is not the right entity to decide which online services can be offered for free. There are other concerns about Indian internet users’ traffic being routed through Facebook’s servers situated outside India.
Facebook has tried to bring forth only the rosy side of the picture by encouraging Indian users of its service to email the regulator in support of Free Basics.
“Free Basics is in danger in India. A small, vocal group of critics are lobbying to have Free Basics banned on the basis of net neutrality,” claimed a message sent to those users.
“Instead of giving people access to some basic Internet services for free, they demand that people pay equally to access all Internet services, even if that means 1 billion people can’t afford to access any services.”
The issue need to be dealt with at a more deeper level as it has the capability to change the face of Internet in India for once and forever.