Earlier this month, SpaceX and India’s largest telecommunications company, Reliance’s Jio Platforms, announced a partnership to deploy Starlink’s services in India. In a now-deleted post on social media, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Indian minister of railways, information and broadcasting, and electronics and information technology, welcomedStarlink to India, noting its usefulness for railway projects. The announcement comes less than a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington, DC, where he met US President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who is also the head of SpaceX. 

Longtime observers of India’s telecommunications market may have been surprised by this announcement. Telecoms was a state monopoly until the 1990s. Even today, after waves of liberalization and relaxation of foreign direct investment requirements, it remains one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the country. This market is also notoriously cut-throat, with the past ten year years seeing intensifying competition over India’s booming customer base—one of the largest and fastest growing in the world—between its two largest players, Reliance Jio and Airtel. 

But Starlink’s entry into India, albeit on New Delhi’s terms, should not be a surprise. It is an example of India’s hybrid approach to tech sovereignty, which favors co-development and diversification, both in its private and bilateral partnerships.