PMO may give free Internet data packs initially like LPG subsidy

The Prime Minister's Office or the PMO may soon start providing first time Internet users in the country with some amount of free mobile Internet data like LPG subsidy.

Sources quoted by ET said that the PMO was monitoring the differential pricing issue closely as the Digital India campaign is a pet programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and any laws related to the Internet will play a role in success of the initiative.

The report also said that Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the PMO, and Harsh Vardhan, minister of state for science & technology, are scheduled to meet Communications & IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday for the second time in a week to make sure that the PMO's views are incorporated before laying out the final policy on net neutrality.

The meeting will be about differential pricing and Free Basics will be on top of the agenda, a source was quoted in the report as saying.

Facebook's Free Basics has faced flak in the country and was ordered to be temporarily shut down by telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The social media major has been putting up a vehement opposition claiming that they are not looking to make profits out of Free Basics and the services they are offering are in line with principles of net neutrality.