NL Hafta – Episode 48

It’s the first Hafta of the new year and we discuss what we hope to see in 2016. ​We share our take on the Free Basics debate and Facebook’s PR push for the initiative. ​Isn’t the Internet supposed to be free for all?​

​The Delhi government’s odd-even plan​ is in effect from today (January 1) and we discuss ​if the initiative ​is ​sustainable in the long run.

Rajasthan has set a minimum educational qualification for contesting Panchayati Raj elections. We discuss what this means for democracy in India. We also have a special song for everyone welcoming 2016.​

For reference:

1. Justice Markandey Katju’s piece in Scroll.in.
2.  Mahesh Murthy’s piece in TheWire: Facebook is Misleading Indians With its Full-page Ads About Free Basics
3. Facebook’s response to Mahesh Murthy: Facebook’s Rebuttal to Mahesh Murthy on Free Basics, with Replies
4. Manu Joseph: Protecting the Internet, but Depriving India’s Poor
5. Nandan Nilekani: Free basics is a walled garden: Here’s a much better scheme — Direct Benefit Transfer for internet data packs
6. The Week magazine’s cover.
7. Hartosh Bal’s Piece: The challenge to Jaitley is a challenge to business as usual in Lutyens’ Delhi 
8. R Jagannathan’s article: The Media Is Now A Player
9. Newslaundry: 2015: The year when journalists and politicians brawled like never before
10. DMDK chief Vijayakanth spits at journalists
11. India Today’s 40th Anniversary issue.
12. Outlook’s 20th Anniversary issue.
13. Hartosh Singh Bal’s profile of MJ Akbar
14. Ankita Chakraborty on the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre
15. Times Now: #MatricPassNeta: Qualification cut off needed?
16. Business Standard: The Free Basics debate

Listen to NL Hafta on iTunes here