“He wants to be supportive of new companies…” Elon Musk opened up about his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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00:00I can say he really wants to do the right thing for India.
00:14I'm a fan of Modi, so...
00:17Well, I'm actually incredibly excited about the future of India.
00:46I think India has more promise than any large country in the world.
00:50The takeaways from the meeting?
00:52Takeaways from the meeting, he really cares about India, because he's pushing us to make
00:57significant investments in India, which is something that we intend to do, and we're
01:03just trying to figure out the right timing.
01:04In a nutshell, it was a fantastic meeting with the Prime Minister, and I like him quite
01:13a lot.
01:14We met in our Fremont factory several years ago, and so we've now known each other for
01:18a while.
01:19How do you see Prime Minister Modi's leadership role as far as making technology inclusive
01:23so that digital infrastructure can be created?
01:26I can say he really wants to do the right thing for India.
01:31He wants to be open, he wants to be supportive of new companies, and obviously, but at the
01:35same time, make sure it accrues to India's advantage, which is, obviously, that's the
01:40job.
01:42I am a fan of Modi, so I have to say that.
01:46What are your future plans, personally?
01:47What do you look at as far as investment in India is concerned?
01:51Yeah, well, I think there's a tremendous amount of potential for all three pillars of the
01:56sustainable energy future, the three pillars being sustainable energy generation through
02:02solar and wind, primarily, and obviously, India is great for solar, and the amount of
02:07land area you actually need to generate enough electricity to power India is very small.
02:13I believe it'd be probably one or two percent of the land area of India, so it's very doable,
02:19and then you need to pair that with stationary battery packs because the sun doesn't shine
02:23at night, and then you need electric vehicles, and then you have a sustainable energy future,
02:28and I think the interesting thing people will find is that this is a lower-cost way to go
02:32as well.
02:34That may surprise people, and we're also hopefully looking forward to bringing Starlink to India
02:37as well, the Starlink internet, which I think can be incredibly helpful for remote or rural
02:47villages where they perhaps may have no access to internet, or the internet is very expensive
02:52and slow.
02:53Do you plan to visit India anytime soon, but did the Prime Minister extend an invitation
02:57to you?
02:58He did, and yes, I'm tentatively planning to visit India again next year, and I'm looking
03:06forward to it.