Jio-Facebook partnership: Step towards Universal Basic Internet – The Sunday Guardian Live

Access to most mobile internet users in India along with the ability to provide content and mobile applications in Indian languages give Jio-Facebook a substantial advantage to reach every currently internet-enabled Indian. In April 2021, in a video release, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Jio announced investment by global social media network giant Facebook for a 9.99% stake for Rs 43,574 crore, which values Jio at a mind boggling Rs 4.62 lakh crore. Subsequently, Jio has raised more than Rs 1 lakh crore in a bid to reduce the mounting debt and interest obligations on its balance sheet. In January 2020, the Supreme Court of India declared access to the Internet as a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. The United Nations Human Rights Commission had in 2016 passed a non-binding resolution that effectively makes internet access a basic human right. India at that point had opposed this resolution in the UN. Mark Zuckerberg, founder-CEO of Facebook had in August 2014 published a 10-page whitepaper outlining his idea of how the internet should be made accessible for every person and access to data should be a fundamental right. Globally, many technology leaders and public policy experts were…
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