Are we putting the cart before the horse?

Trai has taken a technical view of net neutrality to the neglect of India's circumstances and policy imperatives

There is no universally accepted view on what constitutes net neutrality (NN). This is why regulators evolved certain basic principles: no selective blocking or throttling and transparency in traffic management. In 2015, I said that these ought to be accepted as inviolate (The Wire, May 13). And, this is precisely what Trai has recommended. The surprise is that when its own consultation paper (March 2015) argued for these principles why has it taken the authority so long to reach this conclusion. Most disappointing was that it failed to situate the matter in the larger public policy context.

Trai has taken a