Coinbase Coinbase of Elon Musk, the cryptographic firm, is close to the launch of India

Even if Starlink faces Canceled contracts in Canada in the middle of a trade war with the United States and potentially growing competition with rivals in Europe During the war in Ukraine, the American satellite internet supplier received a big boost on the other side of the world.

India two largest telecommunications suppliers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jioannounced Partnerships to provide Starlinks services to the country on Tuesday And WednesdayRespectively, the two companies agreeing to give their hundreds of millions of customers access to high speed Starlinks Internet services. It is a breakthrough for Starlink and his parent company SpaceX, which spent years trying to start operations in India but were blocked by resistance of these same telecommunications players and Regulatory examination of the Indian government.

Even if Starlink faces Canceled contracts in Canada in the middle of a trade war with the United States and potentially growing competition with rivals in Europe During the war in Ukraine, the American satellite internet supplier received a big boost on the other side of the world.

India two largest telecommunications suppliers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jioannounced Partnerships to provide Starlinks services to the country on Tuesday And WednesdayRespectively, the two companies agreeing to give their hundreds of millions of customers access to high speed Starlinks Internet services. It is a breakthrough for Starlink and his parent company SpaceX, which spent years trying to start operations in India but were blocked by resistance of these same telecommunications players and Regulatory examination of the Indian government.

Although the first of these obstacles has been authorized with Airtel and Jio partnership announcements, the two Indian companies have clearly indicated that transactions remain subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorizations to sell Starlink in India. A spokesperson for the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, refused to comment on the status of this authorization, saying that the deliberations were confidential.

It is not difficult to see why Starlink is eager to enter the Indian market of more than 971 million Internet users, according to the last government datarepresenting almost three -quarters of the largest population in the world and second just behind Chinas Online user base This is largely closed to Western companies.

For India, the desire to open its virtual doors to Starlink is more recent and perhaps political.

I suspect that Starlink will obtain the required approvals, said Aditya Ramanathan, researcher at the Bangalore -based reflection group, who directs his work on external space affairs. There are several practical reasons for the Indian government to coopte a service like Starlink, he said, including the desire to counter Chinese Satellite internet program And a potentially more malleable partner in its propensity for Internet closures. The Indian government would certainly prefer that the Indians use a satellite internet which is operated either by Indian companies or by companies of foreign friendly countries, he added.

But there is another potential reason for the change of heart of the India: SpaceX belongs to the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the American president Donald Trumps electoral campaign and has now become the most important figure in the Trumps administration. Musks are closing an alliance with Trumpwho have repeatedly criticized the rates of great India importance and threatened the reciprocal prices of his own is very likely to be a significant consideration.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one of the world's leading leaders to visit Trump in Washington after taking office for the second time, also sat with Musk during this White House visit and said in a following job On X (which Musk also has) that the two men discussed space, mobility, technology and innovation. (The spokesperson for the Indian Embassy did not specify if Starlink was discussed.)

The Minister of Commerce India, Piyush Goyal, is would have Scheduled to make his second trip to Washington in less than two weeks to negotiate a trade agreement with the Trump administration.

India sees very little significant separation today between SpaceX and the United States government due to the role of Elon Musks in the current administration, said Ramanathan. Any decision involving SpaceX and Tesla today is intrinsically a political decision, it is therefore not unreasonable to see this as part of a broader agreement, he added, referring to the electric manufacturer belonging to muscles which has also been negotiation With New Delhi.

Musk is not the only donor to obtain a big victory in India this week. The same day that Airtel and Starlink announced their partnership, Coinbase, one of the greatest exchanges of cryptocurrency, the United States, announcement that he had obtained the approval of the India Financial Intelligence unit to start operations in the country. It allows us to offer crypto trading services in India, the company said in a press release.

The cryptography industry has been faced with several obstacles in India in recent years. The country's central bank prohibited all cryptocurrency exchanges in 2018, a ban which was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court of India two years later. The trading of cryptocurrencies on Indian exchanges has booming Since then, despite a 30% tax On cryptographic benefits, an uncertain regulatory environment and continuous warnings from the central bank on the risk of negotiation of cryptocurrencies. In 2024, India forbidden Several exchanges of cryptocurrency abroad, including Binance and Kucoin, for having allegedly known laws against money laundering.

Coinbase was initially launched in India in 2022, but the company ceased operations less than a week later due to what CEO Brian Armstrong over there describe As informal pressure from the central bank and uncertainty of the India digital payments regulator.

Now, the cryptocurrency company can benefit from the adaptation of Trumps' attitude to the crypto. The American president adopted the cryptography industry after years opposing it, organizing a crypto summit at the White House last week after announcing a new Bitcoin strategic reserve. It is largely due to the immense support of the industry for its presidential campaign and administrationcoinbase was one of the many cryptography companies that given At least $ 1 million in Trumps Trumps Presidential Inauguration Fund, with Armstrong meeting Trump several times since he took office and attended the Crypto summit in recent weeks.

President Trump returned life to cryptographic industry, said Armstrong in a video Posted from the White House. I think the rest of the G-20 [a group of 20 governments that includes India] Search for America now in attack in this industry and will be likely to follow the plunge.

While governments around the world are trying to sail in the mercurial nature of Trumps whims, India can establish a plan for the way concessions for its industry allies could get a stay on other fronts. It is quite obvious that these movements are influenced by political considerations, by attempts to manage the India-US relationship and to ensure that we have no major commercial disputes, said Ramatan.