Elon Musk says Starlink in India could help protect "men, women and children" during disasters

Elon Musk is publicly pushing for Starlink's commercial launch in India, arguing that added competition would give consumers more choices and that the service could help protect lives during disasters when ordinary networks fail. His latest remarks followed a post questioning broadband availability and continued a dispute with Reliance/Jio; he accused its leadership of trying to protect a dominant position, while Reliance has not publicly responded. On Oct. 9, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said India does not permit monopolies and that the telecom department is technology-neutral. He said licenses were granted to Starlink, Jio Satcom and Eutelsat OneWeb, with Amazon's Project Kuiper interested, while spectrum pricing is being finalized and all operators must clear security and regulatory requirements. The dispute matters because it touches satellite broadband competition and connectivity in underserved parts of India.