Kolkata: Academicians from India’s premier institutes IITs and IISc have slammed Facebook’s Free Basics initiative, terming it ‘flawed’ and ‘misleading’. In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, around 50 faculty members from IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Kharagpur, Madras, Patna) and IISc Bengaluru have denounced the proposal dubbing it a ‘lethal combination that will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use the Internet’.

Listing three major flaws in the programme, the scientists urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to ‘thoroughly reject’ Free Basics proposal.