Elon Musk backs India for permanent UNSC seat

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, January 23

American billionaire and X owner Elon Musk has spoken in favour of India being given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC). “At some point, there needs to be a revision of the UN bodies…India not having a permanent seat on the Security Council, despite being the most populous country on Earth, is absurd. Africa collectively should also have a permanent seat,” Musk posted on X.

Eyes Indian market

In India, Elon Musk’s company — Starlink — is clearing the final regulatory hurdles to get a licence to operate. In 2021, Starlink had shut down its services after a soft launch because of lack of regulatory permissions.

Musk pitching for a seat on the UNSC for India comes at a time when Starlink, another company that he owns, is clearing the final regulatory hurdles here to get a licence to operate. The billionaire has also not got any positive signal from the Indian government to his demand to lower the import duty on Tesla cars.

Musk’s attempt to enter the Indian market had suffered a stutter in late 2021 when the Department of Telecom (DoT) advised Indians to not buy Starlink internet services as it is not yet licensed in the country. As a result, the company was forced to offer refunds to 5,000 people it had already enrolled. The humiliation led to Starlink’s India head Sanjay Bhargava putting in his papers. Once earlier in 2021, Starlink had shut down its services after a soft launch because of lack of regulatory permissions.

Now, Starlink has been reportedly granted the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite licence but needs to obtain several other approvals as well. The path has opened for Starlink after Indian giants Reliance and Bharti have already been granted similar licences.