Tesla team in India moves out of country amidst duty row with Indian Govt

While Union Ministers continued to invite Tesla CEO Elon Musk to come to India and manufacture electric automobiles, he seemed more concerned with his Twitter acquisition than with what the Indian government has been saying for months.

Musk's complete lack of interest in responding to several requests from the Indian government, particularly from Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, follows reports that the team he hired in India last year has been redirected to focus on the Middle East and larger Asia-Pacific markets.

Nishant Prasad, who is in charge of setting up Tesla's supercharger network in India, has changed his LinkedIn title to Charging Operations Lead-APAC. Manoj Khurana, who was Tesla India's first hire and was in charge of public policy and corporate development, transferred to California last month to work on a project.

Musk's Tesla looks to be retaliating since the Indian government has refused to accept Musk's proposal for lower import duties on Tesla vehicles. Several Indian authorities have made repeated calls to Musk to bring Tesla to India, from Telangana Minister for Industries KT Rama Rao to Maharashtra Minister and state NCP President Jayant Patil, but to no effect.