The government of India has responded to Elon Musk’s claims over Starlink’s pending approval in the country. In a press release shared by the PIB, the Ministry of Communications said that its framework for satellite services like Starlink remained fair and non-discriminatory. “The suggestion that the framework or its application is unfair or discriminatory is baseless and misconceived,” the ministry said.

In the press release, the Ministry of Communications did not name Elon Musk directly, it comes a day after the tech trillionaire made accusations on X. “A post is being circulated in social media regarding the fairness of India's regulatory framework for satellite communication services and suggesting that it is being applied in a discriminatory manner,” the release said.

On Wednesday night, Elon Musk had accused oligarchs of trying to block Starlink in India. “Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people,” he wrote on X. “You can guess who they are...”

The Ministry said that the Government has “put in place a fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework” for all telecommunication services, including satellite communication services. It also pointed out that it had granted telecom licenses to three satellite communication services. “Telecom licences have been granted to three Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite services based on non-geosynchronous satellite orbit based satellite communications,” the ministry said.

As part of the process, the ministry said, “every such licensee is required to demonstrate compliance with security conditions.” While the ministry did not name any licensee, as per previous reports, Starlink is one of the three services to have received the license, alongside Reliance Jio and Airtel-backed OneWeb.

But security approval remains pending for all three players. “Security assessment as part of this process is currently under way in respect of all the three licensees. As and when this process is completed for a licensed entity, it may proceed to the next step of seeking assignment of spectrum,” the release stated. “At present, all the three entities are at broadly the same regulatory stage.”

During the Indian Mobile Congress, Starlink VP Lauren Dreyer discussed the company’s plans for India operations. She claimed that Starlink was ready with India-specific security controls. "We’ve built our Starlink operations specifically for India in recognition of Indian security requirements and other regulations, establishing controls at every layer for India, and keeping Indian user data within India," Dreyer said as quoted by ANI.

Source: India Today