Sunday, 1 November 2015

Free internet? or Capital Gain?

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34513257

With such rapid development in the digital world, countries with large populations offer an enormous potential for the collection of intellectual data. India hosts an internet population of nearly 354 million users, which has already grown 15% in 2015. This is a vast market for corporations to pursue, as for companies like Facebook and Google, personal data is seen as a form of currency in the virtual world. The link I have provided below discusses India’s current network situation, as with a large majority of the nation disconnected the country has been approached by MNC’s such as Facebook and Google offering to provide public access to basic internet infrastructure. With the potential for India’s population to be using these internet access points Google will have the opportunities to have access to a mass amount of untapped personal data that has a capital value in the digital world. 
Google have ultimately signed a deal whereby internet will be provided to over 500 railway stations across the country. This offers a direct free access to the internet for the public free internet.  "Is Digital India going to only make India a consumer of services offered by global tech companies in lieu of data? Personal data is the currency of the digital world. Are we going to give that away simply to become a giant market for a Facebook or a Google? Look at the way the tech world is skewed. Only China has been able to come up with companies that can take on these MNCs" Prabir Purkayasta, chairman of the Society for Knowledge Commons in India, told the BBC.  With this statement Purkayasta shows concerns of capital control from MNC’s as he feels that they are simply looking to gain capital for their own interests.


 Do these developments and propositions by large MNC’s only seem contingent in gaining capital for their own interests, or could this privatization of the networks provide support to India’s overall economic infrastructure by further developing into a neo-liberal society?
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2 comments:

  1. Unknown4 November 2015 at 13:35

    I knew India was up and coming in the IT sector (call centers) but I was unaware of the digital race happening across the pond. I recall this article from 2010 which stated that more people have access to cell phones than they do toilets (http://unu.edu/media-relations/releases/greater-access-to-cell-phones-than-toilets-in-india.html).

    In my opinion, these large MNCs definitely do this for their own gain. That is not to say that it will not improve India's overall economic infrastructure. There seems to be a focus on improving communications technologies rather than the social needs of people (medicine, food, improved sanitation etc)

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  2. Unknown7 November 2015 at 11:17

    I agree with Dmitrie that while these developments can improve India’s overall economic infrastructure, these actions by large MNCs are not acts of social good. There are many other social needs that India can improve on, so it is quite convenient that what these MNC’s have decided to help with, ultimately benefits them the most due to the extra data they can collect, making them even more powerful. Here’s an interesting article that describes the backlash against Facebook. http://www.wired.com/2015/05/backlash-facebooks-free-internet-service-grows/

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