The year was 2003 when I came to Hyderabad for a job. I stayed in a Area called Tarnaka. The Locality where I stayed was slowly growing. But, it had quite a few teething problems.
The roads were in bad shape. There was one grocery store in the area. Invariably, when we guys would land up there to buy things, I would pay at least 30% higher prices than what we paid, when we want to the main road[Tarnaka circle].
Roads improved and a few more grocery stores came up. Competition increases , but, the 30% premium reduced to less than 4% over a period of time.
Why am I telling this story?
What is Airtel Zero ? It provides you with a cheaper option. You will browse flipkart for free. But, flipkart does not sell vegetables. Really, That's not true.
Nextbigwhat says, Flipkart is launching a grocery business. We have a few players in grocery now. We have Bigbasket and we have zopnow.
If browsing is free on flipkart, over next 2-3 years, Bigbasket and zopnow will go down. Their growth prospects will get hampered. Hell, with flipkart's great distribution, your local kirana will close.
I'm all for free trade. But, creating two different roads is actually hurting. Economic behaviour is short-term. But, long term this will create massive impact.
So, in our Interest as a consumer, we should support #NetNeutrality . TRAI needs to ban preferential pricing. Otherwise, we will end up with a single player which is harmful.
And Innovation will stop.
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