Maintaining that the right for all of access to internet is “non-negotiable”, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday the government will not allow any company to restrict entry of Indians into the worldwide web.

“Without going into the larger nuance of net neutrality in India, we have taken a new position — that right of access is important and is not negotiatble,” he said.

The minister said the government had not accepted Facebook’s Free Basics programme as it offered access to only select internet services. Speaking at the Global Conference on Cyberspace, Prasad said: “When I was handling the Communications Department, my friend Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) met me with the idea of Free Basics a number of times. Free Basics is that everything will be free if you enter through my (Facebook’s) gate, namely education, health, entertainment, etc. To which, I replied that India is a democratic country and we don’t believe in one gate.”

The government plans to make six crore people in rural areas digitally literate under the PM’s digital literacy programme, he .

Digital literacy

“Under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan, one crore people in rural backward areas have already been made digitally literate, and another six crore will be trained in the next two years.”. The minister said India is trying to create an “inclusive, safe and secure cyber space for sustainable development. The focus is on looking beyond mere digitisation to digital technologies as means to empower people.”

On cyber diplomacy, he said: “In this new world order, collaboration and cooperation among nation States is entering a new phase. There is already recognition for such cooperation in areas such as cyber defence and security. However, rules of engagement relating to international concerns, including cyber warfare espionage and crime, need to be evolved.”

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