Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the owner of Twitter, said on Wednesday that he spoke with the Indian prime minister about making “significant investments” there.
One of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk, claimed that Modi was pressuring him to make large investments in India, which he intended to do but was unsure of the best time to do so.
In recent years, leading international investors and corporations, including tech behemoths like Google and Apple, have received the red carpet treatment in New Delhi.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of businesses have increased their footprint in India in an effort to reduce their reliance on China in the supply chain and take advantage of the sizeable local market in the South Asian country.
It was “great meeting” Musk in New York, according to Modi, who had just arrived from India on a state visit when they first met.
“We had multifaceted conversations on issues ranging from energy to spirituality,” Modi tweeted on Wednesday, a day before he is due to be hosted by US President Joe Biden for a state dinner.
Musk said he was a “fan” of Modi. “I am actually incredibly excited about the future of India. India has more promise than any large country in the world,” he added.
Free speech advocates have questioned Musk about reports that Twitter gave in to pressure from the Indian government to remove messages that were critical of it.
Critics charge India’s administration of democratic regress, citing restrictions on free expression and a failure to do enough to prevent attacks on minorities and journalists.
Last week, Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, said that throughout his leadership, Indian officials consistently put pressure on the website he built.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister of information technology in India, reacted by calling Dorsey’s assertion a “outright lie” and charging Twitter with repeatedly breaking local laws.
In terms of the quantity of requests made by governments to have information removed, Twitter reported last year that India came in fourth globally, trailing only Japan, Russia, and Turkey.
