Facebook India MD Kirthiga Reddy resigns after TRAI verdict

Facebook Inc’s India managing director, Kirthiga Reddy, said on Friday she is resigning. Reddy, who joined Facebook in 2010 as its first employee in India, said she would be relocating to the United States in the next 6-12 months. “I have also begun to explore new opportunities at Facebook back at Menlo Park,” Reddy said in a Facebook post. Reddy said she was working closely with William Easton, MD of emerging markets (Asia Pacific), and Dan Neary, vice president of Asia Pacific, to search for her successor. The move comes days after India introduced rules to prevent Internet service providers from having different pricing policies for accessing different parts of the Web, in a setback to Facebook’s plan to roll out a pared-back free Internet service. The service, earlier known as internet.org, has also run into trouble in other countries that have accused Facebook of infringing the principle of net neutrality - the concept that all websites and data on the Internet be treated equally. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was disappointed with the Indian ruling and said that the company was still “working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world.”