This is great, but I do have some concerns:<p>- The support for Modi's "Digital India" by Facebook looks like a rebranded Internet.org, which will have serious implications on net neutrality in India, affecting not only the users but also Indian Internet startups.<p>- Packaging FB/Google/Twitter services for free consumption is unlikely to encourage more content creation from the masses.<p>- Our IT Act, often in conjunction with our blasphemy and defamation laws, has repeatedly been used to silence citizens who dared to voice their opinions on the Internet. Let us please not be blind consumers of "curated" news tweets. Let us also fight for a right to create content, without being censored, on the Free Web.
As someone with a startup that operates in both India and China, I completely agree that India will be the next big thing.<p>Both are messed up in their own ways. The difference is that in India, things are generally getting better. There are exceptions but the trend is moving towards a better internet ecosystem.<p>China on the other hand is a case of how to F<i></i>* things up. They modernized their tech backbone so quicky hundreds of millions of people have access to fast (20 mbps+) internet. From there the government has made it virtually impossible to have a global tech focussed startup in China.<p>Just an example- npm repos are by default blocked in China. Apparently the automatic version control ended up with a number sequence that corresponds in some bamboozled way with a black date that's censored. Government had a hissy fit and therefore NPM is blocked. You have to reconfigure to use Chinese locally hosted repos which is a security risk (Read: IOS malware in Chinese versions of software)<p>We also got stung with a government request for data on users. Since the law in China changes with every government official you meet, some of the shit they ask for is beyond rediculous. To be fair, it's also happened in India, but the frequency is decreasing.
As an American who up and moved to China on a whim and more recently started a tech company split between Boston and Shanghai, I can only greet this news with jubilation. Life here over the last two years has become simply impossible. Good luck to you China.
Free sounds good, but of course it isn't really "free", stuff is being built and the people who build it, and the people who makes the parts and so on, are all getting paid. You can't put a billion people online "for free". So who is paying? Obviously the people themselves, eventually. India would be wise to ensure the profits made by American companies are taxed in India. This is the mistake the EU made and why Google, Amazon, Apple et al are laughing all the way to their offshore banks.
There have been some predictions in the last few years that China will peak economically in the near future due to population controls (one-child policy)<p><a href="http://wallstreetflaneur.com/forget-china-how-population-changes-will-prevent-china-from-becoming-the-next-great-superpower/" rel="nofollow">http://wallstreetflaneur.com/forget-china-how-population-cha...</a><p>The other prediction is that India will become an economic superpower by 2030:<p><a href="http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/india-to-become-economic-superpower-by-2030-us-intelligence-526055.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/india-to-become-economic-s...</a>
Meanwhile in Kashmir, which is an "integral" part of India (apparently) — <a href="http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/access-denied-kashmir-sans-internet-on-eid-days/197463.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/access-denied-kas...</a>
This is great.<p>Also, worth noting that tech is seemingly the one area of regulation / legislation that sees swift and decisive action in favor of the average Indian. But that's due to the sheer noise generated by the empowered digital Indian on such issues.<p>- Huge pushback on OTT regulation by TRAI (India's FCC) <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/trai-seeks-to-regulate-ott-players-like-skype-viber-whatsapp-and-google-talk/" rel="nofollow">http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/trai-seek...</a><p>- Repeal of Section 66A <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32029369" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32029369</a>
etc.
"Rape fear keeps US students out of India" --Nancy Powell
<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rape-fear-keeps-US-students-out-of-India-Nancy-Powell/articleshow/26059607.cms" rel="nofollow">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rape-fear-keeps-US-...</a>
Me and 2 friends have spent the last 8 months building an Android app, just launched in India and are getting good traction. Anyone have recommendations for VC's/angels - either in the region or interested in it?