-The Hindu The public now sees the Internet not just in market terms, but as a social phenomenon that requires public interest regulation. In its aggressive campaign for Free Basics, couched in simplistic developmental language, Facebook underestimated the political sophistication of the Indian public. It must be regretting it now. The social networking service’s reportedly Rs. 100-crore campaign, through double full-page newspaper advertisements, billboards and television, appears simply to have congealed public...

The Digital India Mission, launched by the NDA government, aims to connect 2.5 lakh village panchayats with high speed broadband internet by December, 2016 so that citizens can access online services. However, available facts reveal that this is a difficult task to be accomplished. In rural areas, among the youth aged 14-29 about 82 percent do not know how to operate a computer. In urban areas, nearly 51 percent of youth...

-Down to Earth National Optic Fibre Network will connect all 250,000 gram panchayats of India by 2016 India's first high-speed rural broadband network, the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN), was commissioned in Kerala's Idukki district on Monday. With this, the district, which has a large tribal and rural population, has become the country's first district to have all its village panchayats connected to NOFN, the world's largest rural broadband connectivity project through...

-Live Mint State-run companies laying cable at speed of 500km a month, much slower than 30,000km per month rate needed New Delhi: The Rs.20,000 crore National Optical Fibre Network plan that aims to connect 250,000 gram panchayats (village councils) across the country with high-speed Internet access is likely to miss its first target of linking 100,000 gram panchayats by March. The three state-run companies tasked with the job of laying optical fibre...

-The Telegraph Shillong: The Union cabinet today approved the implementation of a "comprehensive telecom development plan" for the Northeast where thousands of uncovered villages would be connected. The proposal entails an estimated expenditure of Rs 5,336.18 crore and the plan will be funded through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). "The USOF would fund capital expenditure (Capex) and operational expenditure (Opex) net of revenue for a period of five years," an official communiqué...