Tuesday newspaper round-up: Facebook, Cameron, Oil, Sainsbury's

Mark Zuckerberg has launched a passionate defence of Free Basics, Facebook’s limited free mobile internet service that was banned in India this month, as he promised to continue to push the programme in other developing countries. Talking publicly about the setback for the first time, the Facebook chief executive on Monday said that the decision by the Indian telecoms regulator to ban the service was “disappointing for the mission for what we are trying to do, and a major setback in India”. – Financial Times

David Cameron faced a barrage of criticism in the House of Commons on Monday from some of the estimated 150 Tory MPs who are set to defy him over EU membership. The prime minister observed that he had endured a tough negotiation on membership terms in Brussels last week. “There were moments when I wished I was in the Arctic Circle,” he said. – Financial Times

The current crash in oil prices is sowing the seeds of a powerful rebound and a potential supply crunch by the end of the decade, but the prize may go to the US shale industry rather Opec, the world's energy watchdog has predicted. America's shale oil producers and Canada's oil sands will come roaring back from late 2017 onwards once the current brutal purge is over, a cycle it described as the "rise, fall and rise again" of the fracking industry. – Telegraph

Investment in the UK’s embattled oil and gas industry is expected to fall by almost 90pc this year, raising urgent industry calls for the Government to reform its North Sea tax regime to safeguard the industry’s future. Oil firms have been forced to dramatically slash costs in order to survivea 70pc cut in oil prices since mid-2014, but the severe drop in investment threatens thousands of North Sea jobs, said Oil and Gas UK (OGUK). – Telegraph

Sainsbury’s has been given until 18 March to consider whether it will return with a new bid for Home Retail Group, the owner of Argos, after its takeover attempt was gatecrashed by South Africa’s Steinhoff International. The supermarket sought an extension of the so-called “put up or shut up” deadline, previously set by City regulators for Tuesday 23 February, after Steinhoff tabled a surprise bid for Home Retail late on Friday. – Guardian

The bosses of some of Britain’s top companies, including budget airline easyJet, defence contractor BAE Systems and oil group Shell, have signed a letter in support of the UK remaining inside the European Union.The letter is signed by the chair or chief executive of about a third of the businesses on the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s largest stockmarket-listed companies. However, there are some notable absentees from the list, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Rival supermarket chain Morrisons, which dropped out of the FTSE in 2015, also declined to sign the letter, which was compiled by City PR boss Roland Rudd. The supermarket chains, which declined to back either side in the Scottish referendum, said the choice of whether to stay in the EU was one for the British people. - Guardian

House prices in some areas are rising so fast that in many cases they “earn” more than the families who live in them. Research by The Times and the Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, shows that one in four homes is going up in value by more than their owners get paid after tax. The figures raise fears that house prices in some regions are a bubble that is bound to pop before long. The analysis compares Halifax house prices across local authorities with pay figures from the Office for National Statistics. – The Times