India defends satellite internet approval process after Elon Musk jab

India has refuted billionaire Elon Musk’s claim that “certain oligarchs” are blocking the launch of his Starlink satellite communication services in the country.

Musk said in an X post on Wednesday that Starlink was being blocked so that unnamed individuals can “maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people”, adding that it was a “crime against the people of India”.

But India’s Ministry of Communications defended its satellite internet approval process as being fair and non-discriminatory in a statement on Thursday.

“The suggestion that the framework or its application is unfair or discriminatory is baseless and misconceived,” the ministry said without naming Starlink or Musk.

It added that three different entities were at broadly the same regulatory stage and that all were undergoing security assessments.

India’s telecommunications sector is dominated by Reliance Jio, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Bharti Airtel, owned by Sunil Mittal.

Both have also ventured into satellite internet. While they have secured early approvals to launch, they are still awaiting final clearances.

Musk has previously had run-ins with Ambani and Mittal over how India should grant them spectrum access. Last year, the two agreed to distribute Starlink systems alongside theirs, but the cooperation appears to have soured.

Starlink has waited since 2022 for licences to operate commercially in India. Last year, it received a key licence from the Communications Ministry to launch, as well as a go-ahead from India’s space agency.

Concerns over security have mounted since 2024 after authorities said they found Starlink devices in a drug seizure operation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as well as in another army operation in Manipur state.

At the time, Musk alleged Starlink’s satellite beams were thereafter “turned off over India” and that they were “never on in the first place”.