Nithin Kamath, founder of stockbroking platform Zerodha, recently expressed his support for net neutrality in India, emphasising its importance for the growth of the technology and startup ecosystem.

What Happened: In a tweet on social media platform X, Kamath addressed the recent discourse on re-evaluating net neutrality in India. He stressed the role that robust net neutrality rules have played in fostering a fair and innovative internet landscape, irrespective of the size of the players involved.

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He further credited the success of his own company, Zerodha, to these internet regulations. Kamath concluded by linking the future of India’s rapidly digitialising nation to the maintenance of an open, accessible, and neutral internet.

Why It Matters: Kamath’s comments come amid fresh reports of telecom operators lobbying the Indian telecom regulator TRAI to impose network usage fees on online services. Such a move could potentially bring some online services under a telecom license, thereby threatening the principle of net neutrality, as previously highlighted by the Internet Freedom Foundation and Medianama founder Nikhil Pahwa.

Pahwa has previously explained how telecom players like Jio, Vodafone India and Airtel are looking to charge sites fees in accordance with the visitors to their pages, effectively scrapping net neutrality.

This principle ensures that internet service providers treat all data on the internet equally, without favoring or blocking particular products or websites. Changes to these rules could significantly impact the Indian tech and startup ecosystem, potentially hindering the growth and innovation that Kamath highlights.

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Artificial intelligence was used as a secondary aid in the writing of this article