Elon Musk’s Starlink in India? Former bureaucrat E.A.S Sarma advises caution

Decks are being cleared, if media reports are to be believed, for Elon Musk’s Starlink company to launch satellite-based broadband services in India.

The Economic Times reported that the company has finally applied to the Indian space regulator for permission to operate in the country. The global company is likely to compete with domestic services Jio-SES and Bharati Airtel’s OneWeb.

Earlier there were reports that the company had demanded exemption from certain conditions required prior to approval. It is not clear if the company has now agreed to abide by the conditions.

The application is reportedly pending before the standing committee of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre under the department of space and the MHA (ministry of home affairs).

The company will also require an operating licence from the DoT (department of telecommunications).

However, citing western media reports, former bureaucrat E.A.S. Sarma has voiced concerns over Starlink’s entry into India. In his letter dated 23 February 2025 to DoT secretary Neeraj Mittal, Sarma refers to reports that the US is arm-twisting Ukraine into signing a mineral deal and threatening to shut off Starlink if the country refuses.

It should serve as a warning and DoT should not rush into allowing Starlink to enter India, he writes.

He also referred to the Supreme Court’s direction that satellite spectrum be allotted to private players exclusively through a transparent auction procedure. He had sounded similar warnings in earlier letters in October and November 2024 against flouting the court’s direction on auctioning satellite spectrum.

In his latest letter, Sarma has pointed out that Musk’s other companies are actively collaborating with the US government in defence and other strategic sectors — and that should also make the government more cautious lest India ends up being arm-twisted too later.

The Indian government should ideally reserve satellite spectrum in India for its own strategic uses such as defence and ISRO’s operations, he said.

‘It is unfortunate that your department has chosen to go out of the way to welcome Starlink with open arms to appropriate precious satellite spectrum against all legal norms, ignoring all strategic implications,’ Sarma added.

He is not sure, he wrote, whether Starlink has agreed to each and every security requirement prescribed for other domestic telecom players.

It has been barely 10 days since Prime Minister Modi returned from Washington DC, where he had what many saw as embarrassing public meetings with Elon Musk and US president Donald Trump. And the Indian media has been in a tizzy ever since.

Reports on India being ready to drastically reduce import duty on electric vehicles to facilitate Musk’s electric car company Tesla to enter the Indian market were followed by announcements that the company is looking to hire people in Mumbai and New Delhi.

Now, with US–India trade relations delicately poised amid ongoing negotiations over reciprocal tariff — and the stock markets clearly struggling in the face of fears around a tariff war — come reports about the impending approvals for Starlink.

Of course, satellite-based internet services have the potential to provide high-speed internet to remote and otherwise inaccessible areas where five optics and mobile towers are not available. So yes, having Starlink is attractive.

But then, Amazon too is keen to offer its satellite-based service Kuiper to India. The actual size of the Indian market and price sensitivity may, however, act as deterrents.

Still, it's not like we lack options — and what of our vaunted self-reliance programme, Make In India? Are we thinking sufficiently far ahead? Or are we rushing to enable Mr Elon Musk of the DOGE?