Facebook to help India connect villages
Zuckerberg visits India, rules out selling stake in Whatsapp
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-10-10 02:28 GMT
New Delhi: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thurs-day offered the help of his company to the cause of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to connect India with the internet.Mr Zuckerberg, who is on his first visit to India, said that there are many villages in India which don’t have internet connectivity. The CEO said that the internet connectivity must be considered as one of the basic rights of the people.
“Tomorrow, I am meeting Prime Minister Modi and I know he is incredibly committed to connect all these villages and I am excited to see how Facebook can help in this initiative,” said Mr Zuckerberg.He said that technology has to serve the whole of society. “Connectivity can’t be privilege for some of the rich and powerful. It needs to be something which everyone shares”.
Mr Zuckerberg is the third high profile CEO of a US-based company, after Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, to visit India in last few days. He announced that Facebook is creating a $1 million fund to help developers develop apps for farmers, migrants and women. Meanwhile, he said that Facebook does not have any near-term plan to make money from mobile messaging service WhatsApp.
Mr Zuckerberg did not give details.Facebook’s final WhatsApp acquisition price tag has risen an additional $3 billion to roughly $22 billion because of the increased value of Facebook’s stock in recent months.WhatsApp works across different types of phones, across borders, and without advertising. The app only charges a 99 cent annual subscription fee.