Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who also leads the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in Washington DC on Thursday.
Modi said he had first held a "very good" one-on-one meeting with tech billionaire Musk, who has launched an aggressive effort as Trump's right-hand man to overhaul the federal bureaucracy.
"Had a very good meeting with Elon Musk in Washington DC. We discussed various issues, including those he is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation. I talked about India’s efforts towards reform and furthering ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance," PM Modi said in a post on X after the meeting.
Modi will later meet Trump in the Oval Office before they hold a joint press conference -- a rare move from the Indian leader, who is a prolific social media user but seldom takes questions from reporters.
Earlier, Modi met US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.
The meeting with Waltz was his first engagement of the day. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval were also present at the meeting.
After arriving at Blair House, Modi met the US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Just hours before meeting with Modi, Gabbard took the oath of office as the 8th Director of National Intelligence in the presence of Trump.
The meeting with Musk comes amid Starlink’s proposed satellite internet initiative in India and Tesla’s potential plans to establish a factory in the country.
The Indian government has expressed interest in bolstering the country’s technological infrastructure, and Musk’s ventures could play a crucial role in these efforts.
Musk, a key figure in the Trump administration, was expected to visit India last year, but the trip was cancelled.
"Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year," Musk posted on his social media platform X on April 20, 2024. But the visit did not materialise even later in 2024.
However, just over a week after announcing the cancellation of his India visit, Musk visited China.
It may be recalled that the Indian government had earlier this year decided to rethink the proposed operation of Starlink in the country over security concerns.
This came in the wake of the discovery of Starlink satellite antennas and routers from Manipur and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a DoT official told The New Indian Express in January, adding: “Incidents like these have prompted the government to scrutinise Starlink’s licence application.”
The government has granted licences to Bharti Group-backed OneWeb and the Jio-SES joint venture Jio Satellite Communications to provide satellite communication services in the country. Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper have also applied for licences but neither has been approved by the government.
In 2021, Starlink courted controversy when it accepted pre-orders from Indian consumers before obtaining the licence to operate in the country. Following this, the DoT asked it to refund the pre-orders.
Fresh problems for Starlink emerged in December 2024 when the company’s routers and antennas were discovered in ethnic strife-torn Manipur. Additionally, police in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands found that drug smugglers were using Starlink Mini—a portable satellite communication device with an integrated WiFi router—to communicate.
Although Musk claimed that Starlink had “turned off” its services in India, security agencies suspect the devices were used in sensitive areas like Manipur, providing internet access to militant groups.
(With inputs from Express News Service)
