Starlink India head resigns

Elon Musk-backed satellite broadband company Starlink’s India head Sanjay Bhargava has stepped down from the position of Country Director and Chairman of the Board of Starlink India for personal reasons. Announcing his resignation today, Bhargava said his last working day was on December 31, 2021.

Bhargava who was appointed as the India Country Director for the SpaceX subsidiary in October led the organisation’s India operations for three months.

Starlink’s India subsidiary was incorporated on November 1, the company is in its initial stages of setting shop in India. Starlink has been looking to provide satellite broadband services through low earth orbit satellites from December 2022.

Starlink has been facing regulatory issues for the past few months when industry players such as Reliance and Delhi based NGO Telecom Watchdog raised an outcry against Starlink taking pre-orders without a commercial license to provide satellite internet services. The Department of Telecommunications raised an issue as well, which caused the LEO company to suspend pre-orders and subsequently refund the $99 pre-orders that have already been made.

No replacement for Starlink’s Country Director, India have been announced yet. The Hindu BusinessLine