Facebook’s recent investment and partnership with Jio Platforms was met with a great deal of media and industry excitement. This move was widely touted as a coming of age of Digital India. The largest US tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft are looking to expand their global fortunes in the new digital economic frontier that is India with its 1.32 billion large consumer market. What is really at stake here and what does it mean in the broader context of India’s economic digitization?

neXt Curve is joined by Prakash Sangam, founder and principal analyst of Tantra Analyst to explore the following topics regarding the context and implications of Facebook’s recent effort to secure their place in India’s digital future:

• India’s Digital Transformation – What are India’s emerging priorities for digitally transforming its economy and advancing industries for the second largest population in the world?
• The Facebook/Jio Platforms Collaboration: a Different Angle – What is the Facebook deal really about? Is it about reinventing the telecommunications market and industry in India or more?
• Going Beyond the Dumb Pipe – What are the adjacent market opportunities that will enable Indian operators to create new revenue opportunities on top of bread-and-butter communication services?
• The Steep Hill to Climb – Succeeding in India – What are the unique nuances of the Indian market that have challenged the likes of Facebook and the many foreign tech companies that will follow looking to stake a claim in India’s rapidly digitizing economy.

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