With Elon Musk announcing his visit to India, Centre likely to fastrack on clearing files for Starlink, Tesla

The tech billionaire’s remarks came a day after he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke and discussed the immense potential for collaboration in technology and innovation
| Photo Credit:
KENT NISHIMURA

With Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk announcing his visit to India later this year , Centre is likely to fastrack the processes of giving licence to Starlink and also some clarity of the Tesla cars’ entry into the country.

The development comes after a day after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Musk on Saturday over the phone.

“It was an honor to speak with PM Modi. I am looking forward to visiting India later this year!,” Musk posted on X in a response to Modi’s post.

On Saturday, after speaking to Musk, Modi posted on X saying the two discussed various issues including the topics that they covered during the meeting in Washington DC in February.

“Spoke to @elonmusk and talked about various issues, including the topics we covered during our meeting in Washington DC earlier this year. We discussed the immense potential for collaboration in the areas of technology and innovation. India remains committed to advancing our partnerships with the US in these domains,” Modi said in his post on X.

Collaboration in technology and innovation

The tech billionaire’s remarks came a day after he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke and discussed the immense potential for collaboration in technology and innovation.

Currently, the Indian government is working on giving licence to Musk’s satellite communication services – Starlink, with both the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which are expected to come out soon.

For the satellite services, the government emphasised that details/ information of Indian customers should not go out of the country. The specification is that landing stations should be located within Indian airspace and data centres should reside within India.

Meanwhile, sources also said Starlink has submitted its formal acceptance of the conditions laid out by the government to get the licence so that it can launch its services.

Sources in the government said that once Starlink gets the licence, the satellite services can be launched simultaneously with other players such as Airtel’s OneWeb and Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Space Technology.

Published on April 19, 2025