India, Aug. 23 -- Infrastructure critical to national security can become a vulnerability when its operation is ultimately dependent on a foreign-controlled system.

United States-based Starlink, owned by Elon Musk, has reapplied to India's space regulator for approval of its second-generation satellite constellation, seeking authorisation for nearly 30,000 low-earth-orbit satellites and proposing direct-to-device (D2D) technology that would allow compatible mobile phones to connect directly to satellites without a separate terminal. The details of the filing have not been independently verified. The application follows an earlier Gen-2 proposal that encountered regulatory hurdles in India and comes as the Department of Telecommunications...