Facebook's Zuckerberg makes strong pitch for internet.org in India

Highlighting the importance of India, Zuckerberg says one can't connect the world without connecting India

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the social media giant Facebook, on Wednesday said he wants to reach out to the millions in India who don’t have access to the internet. 

Speaking at a townhall-style event at IIT-Delhi, Zuckerberg for said Facebook has now opened up its Free Basics platform – which is still recognised as Internet.org – which means any app developer can now include their services on it. This gives people the option to choose which apps they want to use. 

Internet.org is Facebook's initiative to provide internet access to people, and has been launched in 24 countries so far.

"There are 15 million people who have access to the internet now thanks to internet.org," said Zuckerberg.

However, it has has come under lot of criticism in India as it gives free access, but to a limited number of websites.

About 13 crore people in India use Facebook already, making the country the second largest market globally for the social media platform. Underscoring the importance of that market, Zuckerberg said, "Our mission is to connect everyone in the world. You can't connect the world without connecting India." 

The Harvard dropout who founded Facebook while still in college also claimed that one out of ten people on Facebook manages to get a job through those connections.

"For every 10 people who get access to Internet, one of that 10 gets a job and one gets out of poverty," said Zuckerberg while addressing the townhall at IIT-Delhi.

He also said that Facebook was looking to improve affordability so that the apps on it would use less data.  

Responding to a question on Net Neutrality, Zuckerberg said that Facebook supports it but giving the size of the internet, which costs billions of dollars, for free isn’t plausible anymore. The basic usage should and will always be free. He argued that that internet needs to reach the masses and not only the people who are currently using it.