BY SANJEEB KUAMR SAHOO
The Narendra Modi government should allow Starlink, a satellite-based internet service developed by SpaceX, to provide high-speed internet services to anyone who wants to subscribe to it. Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea have still failed to provide consistently high-speed internet services to all their subscribers, who continue to face problems such as call drops and poor connectivity.
Interestingly, I believe that India’s Leader of the Opposition, and top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, also sent a strong message to Mukesh Ambani when he retweeted Elon Musk’s post with his own comment at 8:14 p.m. on October 8, writing: “Welcome to India, Elon. Wait till you discover the other guy.”
Rahul Gandhi was responding to Elon Musk’s post on X at 6:55 p.m. on October 8, in which Musk wrote: “Starlink is licensed in over 165 countries and has spent five years complying with every single law and requirement of the Government of India, so why still no license? Is Ambani the real boss of India?” Both posts were published on October 8, 2026.
However, I am advocating for Elon Musk’s Starlink because, if the NDA-led Narendra Modi government allows American and non-American investors to invest in Indian companies, it should also allow American companies to establish their businesses in India and provide services to Indian consumers.
In 2020, 13 American and non-American investors invested a total of Rs 1,52,056 crore in Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. The American investors included Meta, Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, TPG, L Catterton, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures.
The non-American investors included Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), GIC, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and BP, which invested in various Reliance group businesses and subsidiaries.
