How fear and greed may choke India’s Internet

In a nutshell, the world’s largest democracy wishes to move a little closer to a government-controlled Internet. — Bloomberg

AS payment gateways, Paytm, PhonePe and Razorpay are rivals. But they and more than 100 other Internet startups – from a matrimonial site to a discount broker – have come together to sign an open letter to India’s telecom regulator, asking it to reject phone networks’ demand of additional charges on “large traffic generators” and the government’s desire to licence online businesses.

The latter threat has loomed ever since New Delhi introduced a draconian draft telecom bill last year, through which it wants to retain sweeping powers of state surveillance while imposing a licence requirement on everything from Gmail to FaceTime and Skype.