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Indrani Sen: A New Year’s wish for an Indian Chapter of the Internet Society

The leaders of our marketing, advertising and media industries can contribute positively to the forming of Internet Regulations by forming an Indian Chapter of the Internet Society, which does not have a strong presence in India though it has an APAC Bureau, writes Indrani Sen

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By Indrani Sen

 

This New Year let our marketing, advertising and media (traditional and new) industries join hands to create an Indian Chapter of the Internet Society and help the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and TRAI form rules and regulations for governing the development of internet and digital media in India. The active netizens of India should also be allowed to participate in the chapter as individual members.

 

By now, the readers of this column will be familiar with the debate on “net neutrality” which hit the Indian media in April 2015 after TRAI came out with a consultation paper March 2015 on the growth of Over-the-top (OTT) players like WhatsApp or Skype and exploring a regulatory framework for these apps. Among the various articles which I read at that time, I found the two in Indian Express by Shruti Dhapola in April 2015 quoting from various other sources to be quite informative and would like to share the link with those who might have missed it-  http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/net-neutrality-in-india-debate-zuckerberg-to-flipkart-to-aib-who-said-what/ and http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/net-neutrality-in-india-licensing-to-zero-ratings-its-a-complicated-debate/ . Around that time, Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and India’s leading expert on Cyberlaw and Mobile Law, wrote an excellent article on tech.firstpost.com cautioning our lawmakers -http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/net-neutrality-in-india-heres-why-india-shouldnt-jump-the-gun-on-net-neutrality-263311.html.

 

Recently, the topic of Net Neutrality again exploded in December, 2015 when TRAI reportedly requested RCom to impose a temporary ban on Free Basics. We saw the volunteer-led group savetheinternet.in who had earlier mobilized responses supporting net neutrality to spring into action again with “Save Free Basics” campaign. Face Book reacted strongly with an aggressive  full-page ads in English and vernacular newspapers across the country. Among the various articles which flooded the online media, Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society wrote in www.firstpost.com supporting strongly TRAI’s decision- http://www.firstpost.com/india/the-net-neutrality-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-free-basics-2558884.html. I found the article of Jay Vikram Bakshi on www.linkedin.com very interesting as he suggested an alternative route for resolving the debate around net neutrality in his article- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/free-basics-vs-net-neutrality-jay-vikram-bakshi . Bakshi ended his article with a statement “After all, if it’s for common good, let all the stakeholders in, and allow all citizens equal and rightful access to services, which are based on their common assets (land, airwaves, energy, and water)” which I really applaud.

 

The leaders of our marketing, advertising and media industries can contribute positively to the forming of Internet Regulations by forming an Indian Chapter of the Internet Society, which does not have a strong presence in India though it has an APAC Bureau which works across the region http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/where-we-work/asia/south-asia. Internet Society is a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) who is the custodian of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) Treaty. The last ITRs Treaty was developed after the World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference (WATTC-88) held in Melbourne in 1988. In December 2012, a World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) was held in Dubai, but it did not result in development of a new ITRs Treaty.

 

Internet Society is working actively with International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on the formulation of a new International Telecommunication (ITRS) Treaty.  Ultimately, our internet rules and regulations will have to fall in line with the international guidelines. By taking a proactive step in 2016, our industry leaders can contribute effectively to India’s digital future.

 

Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Professor, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column MediaSENse appears fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.

 

Comments

One response to “Indrani Sen: A New Year’s wish for an Indian Chapter of the Internet Society”

  1. Satish Babu Avatar
    Satish Babu

    Thanks for the piece, Indrani. It is true that India can, and should, contribute better to the Internet discourse, particularly in the context of current debate on Net Neutrality. As you have proposed, Internet Society (ISOC) is a great vehicle for enabling citizen participation for Internet-related policy development.

    I’d like to point out that Internet Society presently has 5 Chapters in India (Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Trivandrum; contact details are available at http://www.internetsociety.org/find-chapter). Besides conducting local programmes, these Chapters are also active in the national and global policy development process for the governance of the Internet. On behalf of ISOC Chapters in India, I’d like to invite you to join a chapter of your choice. If you have a large enough group of interested people, you could also consider setting up a chapter at your location.

    Best wishes!!

    Satish Babu
    ISOC-TRV (http://isoctrv.in)

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