Facebook India head to return to US

Facebook India head Kirthiga Reddy is moving back to the US headquarters of the social media giant days after telecom regulator Trai ruled against differential pricing of data services in the country.

Facebook had said on Thursday that it was shutting down its controversial programme in India — Free Basics — after Trai’s new regulation.

Facebook had carried a mega campaign in India in support of its Free Basics. However, Trai had said that such plans were violating “two key principles of tariff regulation: non-discrimination and transparency”

Under Free Basics, users could access some websites, including Facebook, for free without paying Internet charges on Reliance Communicat-ions network. The social media giant had claimed that Free Basics is to introduce people to the value of the Internet through hundreds of free basic services, beyond Facebook. Ms Reddy said she, along with William Easton, managing director of Emerging Markets (APAC) and Dan Neary, V-P Asia Pacific, have started looking for her successor in India.

“When my family relocated to India, we knew that we would move back to the US some day. It’s a bittersweet moment to share that the return timeframe is coming up in the next 6-12 months,” she said in a social media post.

“What am I going to be doing It will be business as-usual over the next 6-12 months. I am working closely with William Easton and Dan Neary as we search for my successor in India. I have also begun to explore new opportunities at Facebook back at Menlo Park,” she said.

Ms Reddy said that as she does this, “I continue to experience the same aha moments as I did in my first few weeks at Facebook — that our mission is so much bigger, the opportunities are so much larger, and each facebooker is so much more jaw-dropping-inspiring than one thinks possible.”