Mr. Modi shared the details of his meeting on X. The meeting marks another important interaction between the two, after its previous encounter in New York in 2023. During that meeting, Mr. Musk expressed confidence that Tesla would soon enter the Indian market, “I believe Tesla will be in India … as soon as possible”.
His three young children attended the meeting of Mr. Musk with Mr. Modi, while Mr. Modi along with his top advisors S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor were including Ajit Dawal. Trump later commented in the meeting, assuming Mr. Musk’s interest in doing business in India, said, “I think he met, possibly, because you know that he is running a company”.
According to India’s Foreign Ministry, Mr. Modi and Shri Musk discussed strengthening cooperation between Indian and American institutions in innovation, space exploration, artificial intelligence and sustainable development. He also touched entrepreneurship and good governance.
Musk’s ambition for Starlink in India
Mr. Musk has been a fan of Mr. Modi for a long time and according to AP he is eager to introduce his starlink satellite internet service in the Indian market.
However, the entry of Starlink into India has faced regulatory challenges, security concerns and opposition from domestic telecom giants like Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio. In November last year, India’s Telecom Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia said that Starlinks had yet to follow security criteria, and a license for satellite communication services would be issued only after meeting all the requirements.
Mr. Musk has criticized India’s policy of giving spectrum for satellite services through auction, but the Indian government later changed its policy, which decided to assign satellite spectrum instead of auctioning it.
Musk is interested in India’s unused satellite broadband market
India’s satellite broadband service market is highly competitive, with at least six companies control the market, headed by Reliance Jio of Ambani.
Around 6,900 active satellites of Shri Musk’s Starlinks are orbiting the Earth, which offer some 4.6 million people to provide low-hearted broadbands. However, if Mr. Musk wants to enter the Indian market, high pricing of Starlink can become an issue. India is one of the cheapest rates of mobile data globally in India and once by Ambani’s Jio
Despite this, at least 40% of India’s population still lacks access to the Internet.
Tesla is waiting to enter India
Tesla is waiting to enter India as it is the world’s largest automobile market, but due to high import duties on vehicles, it has faced obstacles. Apart from this, India’s electric market is still new and is about 2% of the total car sales last year. But the government is trying to push that number by 30% by 2030. In addition, India’s new policy is a new policy of expanding concession tariffs on fully imported electric vehicles, which start local manufacturing by foreign car manufacturers.
In related news, Tesla is preparing to establish its presence in India with a trip to India in India and site selection process. It is expected to bring many benefits from the entry of Tesla in the Indian market, providing access to advanced electric vehicles to Indian consumers, creating job opportunities and contributing to the development and development of the Indian electric vehicle industry.
