The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 50

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The International News Weekly June 15, 2018 | Toronto 06
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Rajinder Saini
Meenakshi Saini
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Kshitiz Dalal
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Bashir Nasir
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sales@canadianparvasi.com
Russia looks set to stage the greatest
sporting show on earth
With the biggest sporting extravaganza
kicking off today in Russia, Fifa World Cup
2018 is set to capture the imagination of worldwide
audiences for the next 30 days. A total of
32 teams will compete for the highest honour
in world football ranging from tiny Iceland to
traditional powerhouses Germany and Brazil.
Notable exclusions this year are Italy,
the Netherlands and USA, all of whom failed
to make it through the qualifiers. Nonetheless,
with teams like Panama, Morocco and
Peru making the cut, there are signs that footballing
excellence is slowly but surely getting
democratised.
The spotlight no doubt will be on host Russia.
While much success isn’t expected from
the Russian team itself, this is President
Vladimir Putin’s chance to showcase Russian
soft power. The World Cup comes at a time
when Russia is looking to reverse some of the
negative press it has received in recent years.
From Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014
to interference in the US presidential election
in 2016 to accusations of attempting assassinations
on British soil this year, Moscow’s image
in the West today has changed dramatically
from 2010 – when it bid successfully to host
this year’s World Cup.
If Moscow is hoping to project soft power
with the World Cup, Russian authorities must
curb hooliganism over the next month. Violent
Russian football fans have gained notoriety
in recent years, clashing violently with
English fans at Marseille during the 2016 European
Championships. Meanwhile, the group
stage matches portend some spicy encounters.
Spain versus Portugal on June 15 is definitely
one to watch out for, as will be Morocco versus
Iran on the same day. Argentina in Group D
appear to have a tricky road to the knockout
stages, having to fend off Iceland, Croatia and
Nigeria first.
Brazil in Group E look more comfortable
with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia in
their draw. Defending champions Germany
are the clear favourites in Group F, having to
contend with Mexico, Sweden and South Korea.
Watch out for Belgium in Group G even
though they have to negotiate England on June
28. Group H with Poland, Senegal, Colombia
and Japan appears to be the most open one,
while France and Denmark should go through
in Group C. But then again, football is a game
of surprises, which could come from Uruguay,
Tunisia and Mexico. As the world prepares to
binge on football, some edge-of-the-seat thrillers
can only enhance the action. Times news Network
Don’t Get Caught In The Net
As US reverses net neutrality, time to remember why India
took the right call
Saubhik.Chakrabarti@timesgroup.com
In inter net and inter
net business regulation,
the list of things not done
and things not smartly
done is pretty damning for
India. We are waiting for
sensible policies on data
privacy, data localisation
and e-commerce. We don’t
seem to have any answer
to the critical question
of whether Indianowned
internet businesses can
become market champions
or whether the fastest
growing internet consumer
market in the world
will be served mostly by
American, Chinese and
Japanese investor-led initiatives.
Parenthetically, this
is not a silly nationalist
question. There are real
consequences for a country
with a large internet
market not fostering local
champions.
But there’s one thing
in internet regulation India
has got right so far,
and it got it right despite
powerful lobbying and
after a remarkably high
quality public debate.
And, extraordinarily,
that’s the thing the United
States, the world’s technology
and technology policy
leader, has got wrong.
Or rather, having got it
right, the US decided to get
it wrong.
That thing is ‘net neutrality’.
This piece of jargon
is easily explained.
Net neutrality means companies
that provide you
with your internet connection
– internet services
providers (ISPs) – can’t decide
that website x can be
accessed faster than website
y. The speed of access
for all websites will be the
same under net neutrality.
Not just that, ISPs can’t
also block access to any
website on their own.
In India, both the government
and the regulator
are in favour of net
neutrality; rules on this
are expected in the near
future. In the US, starting
this Monday, net neutrality
has been repealed.
There will be legal challenges
to this decision in
the US. Some American
states are planning to impose
net neutrality rules to
fight the federal abolition
of this regulatory regime.
But as of now, there’s no
net neutrality in the US,
and the near future looks
like being dominated by
complicated legal battles.
Does this really, really
matter? Yes it really, really
does, however abstruse,
even when explained, the
concept of net neutrality
sounds.
If net neutrality remains
repealed in the US
and remains in force in India,
it may well mean that
over time the internet’s
consumers and businesses
in India will be able to
better exploit the technology’s
potential than their
counterparts in America.
Here’s why. Without
net neutrality ISPs can
start pricing speed and
access. That is, it can tell
you, a consumer, that if
you want speedier access
to certain websites you
should pay extra, and it
can also tell internet businesses
that if they want
consumers to access their
sites faster, they should
pay extra.
What does this do? It
automatically privileges
big, established internet
businesses over smaller
ones and it privileges richer
customers over poorer
ones. Internet, however,
is the powerful force it is
because small companies
had a level playing field
and some of them became
super success stories.
Similarly, the internet
consumer revolution is
predicated on the premise
that all customers, irrespective
of their purchasing
power, will have equal
access to all websites.
Those who argue
against net neutrality say
ISPs will never do anything
abrupt and change
the internet’s access dynamics,
that the absence
of net neutrality doesn’t
mean there will be significant
change in consumer
and business experience.
But that’s not the point.
Slow, incremental
changes over time can add
up to big changes. Typically,
consumers won’t
notice or react to small,
initial changes. ISPs will
write new rules in their
terms of service and ask
for user OKs, these new
conditions will be likely
worded so densely that
most users won’t bother
reading them, the first
access control charges/
changes will be so small
that users won’t notice
them – and that’s how a
process that will eventually
break up the cyber
highway into superfast
lanes, fast lanes and slow
lanes will begin.
Just recall how controversies
over abusing
privacy guidelines began.
Some internet companies
changed terms of service,
no one bothered or
noticed, and then, bingo,
shady Russian and Chinese
firms are playing
with your personal data.
Net non-neutrality will
produce adverse outcomes
in exactly the same way.
It’s precisely because
some smart people understood
that net nonneutrality
can subvert the internet
slowly but surely that
rules on net neutrality
were put in force.
There’s another aspect.
Theoretically, one
can argue that if a user is
not happy with his or her
ISP’s net non-neutrality
features, he or she can just
switch to another ISP. But
in India and even in the
US, and typically in most
countries, there aren’t
that many ISPs to choose
from. So user mobility
is restricted. Plus, why
would any ISP give up the
chance of making more
money under net non-neutrality
by charging both
users and businesses?
For India, where millions
of new internet users
and hundreds of new internet
business ideas can
make this the world’s most
exciting internet market,
net neutrality is absolutely,
utterly crucial. Had India
allowed ISPs and big,
global internet companies
to grade and price access
to websites, a safe prediction
would have been that
India’s internet future
would have been far worse
than its potential. Even
the US will suffer under
net non-neutrality. It’s important
for the world that,
America, the global headquarters
of technological
innovation, gets back fair
play rules for the internet.
Hopefully, legal challenges
will undo the current
American policy change.
But we in India can afford
the rare luxury in the
meantime that for once,
on a question of technology,
we got it right and
Americans got it wrong.
Source Credit: This article
was first published in The Times
of India.
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