New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tech billionaire Elon Musk spoke today about a US-India partnership in the areas of technology and innovation. The two leaders, who had met in Washington earlier this year, took forward their discussion, including about Mr Musk’s auto and tech firms – like Tesla and Starlink – investing in India.
There is “immense potential” for collaboration between India and the United States in these fields, PM Modi said, adding that India is remains committed to advancing a partnership between New Delhi and Washington in these domains.
“Spoke to Elon Musk and talked about various issues, including the topics we covered during our meeting in Washington DC earlier this year. We discussed the immense potential for collaboration in the areas of technology and innovation. India remains committed to advancing our partnerships with the US in these domains,” PM Modi wrote on his social media handle on X – another firm owned by Elon Musk.
The phone call between PM Modi and Elon Musk comes at a time when the United States and China are engaged in a fierce trade war, with either country imposing punishing tariffs on the other – 245 per cent on all Chinese exports to the US and 125 per cent retaliatory tariff over and above its previously existing 67 per cent tariff by China on all US imports.
These tit-for-tat reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs have had a severe impact on industry, since China and the United States are the two largest manufacturing nations globally. Most of America’s top tech firms manufacture a vast majority of their products in China, and tariffs have sent tech sector bosses searching for alternate destinations to manufacture their goods.
India, which has an established manufacturing sector in the tech and auto industry, and faces 26 per cent reciprocal tariff imposed by President Trump, is now being seeing as a favourable alternative for tech firms to gravitate towards. For Elon Musk’s Tesla, the story is no different.
