Modi in US: Investments in India focus of PM-Musk meet

Elon Musk has said that India holds the most promise among any large country in world, and that he was urged by Modi to make “significant investments” in India

Business and tech leader Elon Musk has said that India holds the most promise among any large country in the world, and that he was urged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make “significant investments” in India, which he intends to do at the right time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in New York. (PTI)

Musk is the chief executive officer of Tesla and SpaceX, the chairman and chief technology officer of Twitter, a co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, and the founder of Boring company and X Corp. He was among the business leaders and influencers from across sectors who had one-on-one interactions with Modi on the first day of his power-packed US visit.

Musk, who described himself as a “fan of Modi”, said he was “incredibly excited” about the future of India.

He indicated that he would bring Tesla cars to India “as soon as humanly possible”; was looking forward to getting Starlink, the satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, to the country; and stressed that Twitter could not be free of local laws and therefore must strive to provide “freest speech under the law” rather than making a blanket free-speech promise.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the Indian PM, Musk said: “He (Modi) really cares about India because he is pushing us to make significant investments in India which is something we intend to do. We are just trying to figure out the right timing.”

While being open and supportive of companies, Modi also wants to make sure it accrued to India’s advantage, Musk said. “That’s the job. I am a fan of Modi.”

While Modi, in a tweet, said that it was great meeting Musk and they had discussed issues ranging from energy to spirituality, an official government statement said that the Prime Minister appreciated Musk’s efforts to make technology more accessible and affordable in various sectors. “Prime Minister invited Mr. Musk to explore opportunities in India for investments in electric mobility and rapidly expanding commercial space sector,” the statement said.

In the context of Tesla, Musk said there was “tremendous amount of potential” for all three pillars of sustainable energy future in India.

“The three pillars being sustainable energy generation through solar and wind primarily. India is great for solar. And the amount of land area you actually need to generate electricity to power India is very small. I believe it would be one or 2% of the land area of India. It is very doable.” This, he said, then had to paired with stationary battery packs. And the third was electric vehicles. “And you have a sustainable energy future. The interesting thing you will find is that this is a lower cost way to go as well. That may surprise people.”

Tesla’s entry into India has been mired in some complications. India has insisted the company make its cars in the country, and that importing -- a strategy Musk’s firm instead first preferred -- would draw the same 110% duty that other carmakers need to cough up.

Executives of Tesla visited India and held talks with Indian bureaucrats and ministers last month on establishing a manufacturing base for cars and batteries in India.

Musk said last month Tesla would probably pick a location for a new factory by the end of this year, adding India was an interesting place for a new plant.

Musk also said they were also looking forward to bringing SpaceX’s Starlink to India. “It can be incredibly helpful for remote or rural villages where you may have no access to internet or internet is slow and expensive.”

Separately, when asked about former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey’s allegations of pressure from the government of India to block posts during the farm protests, Musk said that Twitter doesn’t have a choice but to obey local governments.

Dorsey accused India of threatening to shut down the platform for not complying with content takedown orders during a 2021 protest – a charge that India denied.

“If we don’t obey local government laws, we will get shut down. The best we can do is hew close to the law in any given country. Impossible for us to do more than that because we will be blocked and our people will be arrested.”

Musk said it was not possible to apply America to the earth, and there were different forms of government and different laws and regulations. “We will do the best to provide freest speech under the law.”