Called off deal on net neutrality concerns: Flipkart

A: We evaluated over the last few days and we realised that the way it is designed today, in future it can potentially lead to some violation of net neutrality. As a company we are very deeply committed to ensuring that internet in India continues to be very democratic, equally accessible and that is the reason why we decided not to go ahead with this. Q: How will this have an impact on your net based businesses? A: Internet proliferation and easy, cheap access to all of India is overall a good thing. That is what has benefitted e-commerce in last few years and that will continue to do so. So, we are very optimistic about growth of internet especially through mobile phones and being able to keep the internet access neutral is a good thing which will help accelerate the growth of internet. Q: Is there a middle-ground to this issue that can be done? A: Not sure. I think net neutrality principles are very clear. There are number of ways  — whether it is telecos or other participants of the ecosystem — to continue to help drive the growth of internet including e-commerce players without violating the spirit of net neutrality which requires that the data not be discriminated, big or smaller players are not discriminated and consumers are not discriminated.