At the cost and speed at which data is available in India, it would not require an Elon Musk to cover the miles untouched by the virtual world.
Elon Musk is the world’s richest man. The planet’s only trillionaire. Owner of the most politically potent social media platform. Friend, funder, and till recently a federal colleague of the US President.
It is but obvious that Elon Musk loathes to wait his turn.
He has been making that amply clear and public through a barrage of childish, insolent posts on X aimed at India, PM Narendra Modi, and business leader Mukesh Ambani.
Musk wants to sell his Starlink satellite internet connections in India’s vast and hungry market. The company, owned by SpaceX, has received an initial Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) licence from India’s Ministry of Communications.
But the Modi government has not yet approved the launch of its commercial services. The government is making mandatory security assessments and has not assigned spectrum. The Ministry of Communications has clarified that Starlink is being treated on a par with other satellite providers such as Reliance’s Jio Satellite and Bharti Group-backed OneWeb.
Musk finds this unacceptable. He is convinced without proof that Mukesh Ambani is acting like an oligarch and stalling his bid behind the scenes. So, mirroring his friend and ex-boss Donald Trump, Musk decides to throw a mighty tantrum on X, the logic perhaps being if Trump can conduct diplomacy through social media, why can’t he push for a business deal by whipping up online outrage and shaming the Modi government to fold.
So, Musk starts talking the language of Rahul Gandhi.
“Ambani this, Adani that”, “Adani-Ambani run India” and suchlike.
Rahul Gandhi jumps in and welcomes Musk to India, never mind the limits of his authority and the distaste his Left and ‘liberal’ audiences have towards Elon Musk. Musk reciprocates, echoes more of Rahul’s language against the government.
Musk has some really bad advisors on India. Even worse if he strictly keeps his own counsel in such matters, because it is easier to change advisors than attitude.
By his ill-advised and ill-informed rant, Musk has made Starlink’s case worse. He has teamed up with a scion who does not currently have pecuniary powers or political popularity to move a single file at the Centre. It deepens concerns about the foreign hand, which Rahul has repeatedly pleaded for to topple Modi.
It will likely make the NDA government dig in its heels on approvals. It also drastically dilutes Elon Musk’s own popularity among India’s nationalist, Right-leaning lot. And before even entering India, Musk is bent on burning bridges with the nation’s biggest industrialist, and with it, the chances of collaboration across a range of sectors.
If he was mindful, he would understand that the delay in approval is predicated on India’s genuine concerns, not some grand conspiracy.
There are three major aspects of this controversy:
- Online access
- Cost of internet
- National security
In this article in the three-part series, let us examine Musk’s claim that India is denying its masses the fruits of internet access.
India’s digital transformation since 2014 represents one of the largest mass migrations to the internet in human history. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) figures, the country has over 1.09 billion active internet users including 1.03 billion wireless data subscribers, putting India second globally only behind China.