Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at IIT-Delhi, New Delhi. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at IIT-Delhi, New Delhi.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with students at IIT Delhi, where he spoke of his company’s initiatives and addressed issues such as Net Neutrality and Internet access.

Speaking of how important providing Internet access to India is, Zuckerberg said his mission was to connect over a billion people who currently don’t have access, a move that could provide health information as well access to jobs.

“It is an opportunity to help democracy, alleviate poverty,” he added.

WATCH VIDEO: Mark Zuckerberg At IIT Delhi

READ — Those talking of net neutrality are online, those offline have no voice: Mark Zuckerberg

Here are the highlights from the IIT-Delhi Townhall:

1:06 p.m: When asked what Facebook was doing to help find missing persons, Zuckerberg spoke of an initiative launched – for now – in the United States and Canada called AMBER Alert. He said, when a child goes missing, Facebook puts a story in the news feed with the picture of the missing child along with relevant details. He said users see this in their news feed and in many instances have responded with the whereabouts of missing children. Since it launched about a year ago, Zuckerberg said one child had already been found through the initiative.

12:57 p.m: Zuckerberg on the growing number of start-ups: “People before they start a company should know what they are doing. Big companies started with something they cared about.”

12:52 pm: On being asked if Zuckerberg experienced a Eureka moment when he invented Facebook, he said, “The media likes to sensationalise this if I had a Eureka moment, but this is not how the world works. There was not a single moment when I had a revelation that Facebook is going to be awesome. The reality is you start building something you care about and keep working on it. I built it for my college community. I remember talking to my friends then, how awesome it would be if we could connect the world. I had no idea then that the service would turn out to be so big. We just kept doing the next things.”

12:48 p.m: On Net Neutrality: “Most pushing for net-neutrality already have access to Internet. But those who aren’t can’t sign an online petition for an increase in the Internet. We all have a moral responsibility to look out for those who don’t have access and make sure the rules don’t get twisted to hurt those who don’t have a voice,” Zuckerberg said.

12:43 p.m: “The countries are figuring out on their own what the regulations would be for Net Neutrality. What we are trying to do, since the Internet is expensive and you can’t provide the whole internet for free; basic programs, anything that is basically test, low bandwidth would be free. It is really imp that we have regulations that prevent companies from doing things that hurt people. For example if an operator is charging you extra or is making you pay more, regulations is going to prevent that. Good Net Neutrality provisions help people,” says Mark Zuckerberg.

12:39 p.m: Zuckerberg was asked by one of the students what he would do if he was given superpowers to which he said, “One of the great things about technology is you can build superpowers for the people around the world. One of the amazing things would be if you could put on the headset and connect with someone in a differently other location and play ping-pong with that person. Or if could play ping pong in space or underwater, or anti-gravity. That is going to be pretty good.”

12:35 p.m: Zuckerberg says, “Facebook’s mission is giving the people the power to share. For all the people who don’t have access to schools, to have access to information online is important.”

12:32 p.m: Computers Right now, the best way to know people are safe is to mark yourself or family safe. In future, computers could see the affected areas, see better which can help save lives.

12:29 p.m: “We are expecting a daughter soon. I want my family to actually be there and see her taking her first steps. In maybe 5-10 years we may be able to develop share these real-life like 3D images, which would be amazing,” Zuckerberg said on augmented reality.

12: 27 p.m: “In this golden age of Internet, the primary way we are going to share ideas is through videos. But as rich as the video is in terms of telling a story, people want an even richer medium. That’s what virtual reality does,” says Zuckerberg.

12:25 pm: “We will prioritise stopping Candy Crush requests on Facebook.”says Zuckerberg.

12.15 pm: What we’re doing to boost availability



“There are 4 billion people in the world who don’t have access. Some of them don’t have access to the Internet, the second is affordability, third is awareness. We’re working on all of these and we’re investing on new ways to provide availability like solar planes and satellites that beam down Internet.” Facebook app now uses 1/10th of the internet data than earlier, he added.

12.10 p.m: ‘We want to connect everyone in the world’s biggest democracy’

“Our mission is to connect over a billion people don’t have an access to internet in India. It can provide health information, access to jobs,” says Mark Zuckerberg. “It is an opportunity to help democracy, alleviate poverty,” he added.

12:00 p.m: Questions have been selected from those who sent it in when they registered. There will also be questions from live audience.

11:30 a.m: Students pour in at IIT-Delhi

Despite the hundreds of students lined up outside, it did not take long for IIT-Delhi’s iconic Dogra Hall to fill up.

Inside the Amphitheatre shaped hall, everyone was peering into their phones, busy posting selfies and updates on the social network. No wonder Mark Zuckerberg loves India.

The country is all set to become Facebook’s largest demography sometime next year, it already accounts for close to a tenth of its 1.49 billion monthly active users.

The students milled into the hall an hour before Mark Zuckerberg made his appearance on the stage which had two prominent Facebook logos beamed in large screen televisions.

Almost everyone here is peering into a smartphone screen. This is why @facebook loves India. pic.twitter.com/JERwHyoOzX — Nandagopal Rajan (@nandu79) October 28, 2015

The venue of the Zuckerberg Town Hall at IIT Delhi. Students not in yet. pic.twitter.com/nVqZs05Ij5 — Nandagopal Rajan (@nandu79) October 28, 2015

Queues forming outside Dogra hall for the Townhall with @facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. pic.twitter.com/TaJ1WuzbWO — Nandagopal Rajan (@nandu79) October 28, 2015

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