Amid Starlink row, Telangana CM says country can't afford to weaken Brand India

Hyderabad: Amid a controversy over Starlink satellite internet services, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday said India should welcome innovative solutions in cutting edge internet systems and asserted that the country cannot afford to weaken 'Brand India' globally to appease "crony distractions".

The Central government rejected US business tycoon Elon Musk's allegations that Starlink's satellite internet services were being blocked by domestic business interests, leading Musk to ask if "Ambani is the real boss of India".

In a post on X, Reddy said, "Congress governments had always stood for digitisation and modernisation of India and the stellar reform to conceptualise the UPI and adopt mobile-based digital payments infrastructure was taken up under the Congress-led UPA-2 government in 2012-13."


"India should welcome innovative solutions in cutting edge internet systems and cannot afford to weaken Brand India globally to appease crony distractions," he said.

The Telangana CM was responding to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's cryptic post on X that said, "Welcome to India, Elon. Wait till you discover the other guy."

The Centre slammed Elon over his allegations that Starlink's satcom services are being blocked, and made it clear that demonstrating compliance with security norms is an absolute must for every satcom licensee in the country.