Government won’t allow monopoly in any sector in India: Scindia

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Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. File | Photo Credit: Reuters

Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Friday (October 9, 2026) that India “does not allow a monopoly in any sector,” referring to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s allegations that “oligarchs” were blocking Starlink service’s availability in India. “For us in the Department of Telecommunications [DoT], we are technology agnostic,” Mr. Scindia said. “Our job is to be able to provide the bouquet of services to every single customer. It is for the customer to choose, in a free market, which service he or she prefers, and within that service bouquet, which company’s service he or she prefers.”

Mr. Scindia reiterated the Department of Telecommunications’ statement from Thursday (October 8), asserting that all three satellite Internet licence applicants, Starlink, Jio and Bharti-backed OneWeb, were at the same stage. “Once the revenue charges system is finalised — once each one of these parties, party A, B and C, all three individually, based on their achievement of milestones about security concerns and prerequisites, have fulfilled the requirements — then obviously they can start operations,” Mr. Scindia said.

On why the revenue charge system — the key step before Starlink can operate on top of the security clearance — was delayed, Mr. Scindia said, “You say something in a snap, and DoT quickly announces it, and then six months later we will be asked why we announced it in such a hurry.”

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