Centre must strive for non-discriminatory policy for Internet

The Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry today urged the Centre and TRAI to strive towards 'non-discriminatory' network and to refrain from any policy that will hamper the growth of internet in the country.
In an open letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Chamber expressed its dissatisfaction against the recent proposal to create differential access to the internet.
"While CCCI appreciates the government's "Digital India" campaign and realises the importance of getting the internet up to the less privileged rural community (www.Internet.Org), we seriously fail to understand the logic of discriminating websites for this social cause," Chamber President C S Kartha said in his letter.

The Chamber said the government should prioritise to ensure affordable access to data and information to these hundreds of millions.
"They must treat all lawful data on the internet equally and not charging differentially by their use, content, site, application etc," it said.
Noting that net neutrality is crucial for small business especially start-ups who really bank on open internet to launch their businesses, create a market, advertise their products/services and also distribute using e-commerce sites, the chamber said for an IT savvy state like Kerala, "we need open internet for job growth, competition and innovation.