Jan 18, 2025 06:38 AM IST
The Indian entrepreneurs who met Elon Musk at SpaceX facility in Texas included OYO, Flipkart and Aditya Birla Group bosses.
Billionaire Elon Musk on Friday met a delegation of leading Indian business figures at his SpaceX Starbase facility in Texas and said that India-US ties are “trending positive” in his opinion, adding that he backs an enhanced trade partnership between the two nations.
The Indian entrepreneurs, including OYO, Flipkart and Aditya Birla Group bosses, were led by UK-headquartered policy and events platform India Global Forum (IGF) to mark its expansion into the US this week.
They were given a tour of SpaceX’s cutting-edge space exploration facilities and witnessed the successful launch of Starship Flight 7, whose upper stage dramatically disintegrated over the Atlantic.
During a moderated discussion with the Indian entrepreneurs, Elon Musk emphasised the potential for deeper collaboration between the United States and India, particularly in the technology and space exploration sectors.
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“Things are trending positive. I’m certainly in favour of lowering trade barriers to increase commerce between the US and India,” news agency PTI quoted Musk as saying during the session.
Musk described India as “one of the ancient civilisations and a very great and very complex one”.
Who met Musk
The delegation of Indian entrepreneurs included Prashant Ruia, Director – Essar Capital; Jay Kotak, Co-Head – Kotak811; Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & Group CEO – OYO; Kalyan Raman, CEO – Flipkart; Aryaman Birla, Director – Aditya Birla Management Corporation Private Limited; Nilesh Ved, Chairman – Apparel Group; and bestselling author Amish Tripathi, among others.
Elon Musk, who is known for his key roles in automotive major Tesla and social media platform X (formerly Twitter), interacted with Indian business chiefs from across diverse sectors on the role of technology and India’s growing role in the global innovation landscape.
The meeting came just days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as US President for a second term on January 20. Elon Musk’s proposed role in Trump’s top team is said to be co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The meeting followed a set of closed-door discussions on Thursday with members of the incoming Trump administration and key US stakeholders and policymakers, including Jacob Helberg – the Designated Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment in the new American administration.
The discussions, organised for IGF’s US launch, also addressed the American economic landscape, exploring opportunities in digital infrastructure, tech, innovation and foreign investment, while highlighting ways to strengthen bilateral collaboration.
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