SatCom Industry Association (SIA-India) has called for the launch of a National Satellite Connectivity Mission (NSCM) to ensure uninterrupted digital governance and public service continuity in about 40,000 Gram Panchayats where terrestrial links repeatedly fail due to topographical challenges, multi-week outage cycles, and chronic disaster exposure.

In its pre-Budget recommendations to the Central government, SIA-India said these villages are situated in permanently connectivity-fragile geographies across the Himalayas, North-East hilly belts, Nicobar island chain, LWE corridors, desert interiors and cyclone-recurrence coastlines.

Stating that that satellite backhaul at Gram Panchayat is critical for enabling terrestrial Wi-Fi/4G networks to function continuously in geographies where fibre routes fail structurally, SIA-India said satellite is not a fallback, but the only resilient mode, and the budgetary ask is not simply a universal subsidy; it is a hard-geography mandate.

“Satellite and terrestrial networks serve India best when deployed as parallel continuity pillars, each operating where the terrain allows them to succeed,” said Anil Prakash, Director General, SIA-India.

“The National Satellite Connectivity Mission simply recognises that nearly 40,000 Gram Panchayats fall in permanent hard-geography zones where restoration cycles run into weeks, and physical rebuilds repeatedly fail. This is not a universal subsidy proposition, but a geography-defined continuity mandate. A dedicated USOF window with VGF support aligns with the Ministry of Finance’s own treatment of digital access as core social infrastructure—no different in governance necessity from health, education and water systems”, he added.

BharatNet records as of June 2025 show that out of 6,55,968 total villages, only 2,02,107 have been covered, leaving 4,53,861 still outside functional reach, and although 1,04,574 Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed, only 766 remain active.

As per the records, only 5,034 Gram Panchayats are currently connected via satellite, representing barely one-tenth of the continuity-vulnerable footprint, which more accurately spans ~40,000 connectivity fragile Gram Panchayats. Further, given the profile of these regions, satellite remains the only feasible continuity mechanism; the ~40,000 GP cluster cited is rather a conservative baseline, with upward revision anticipated.

SIA-India said that satellite capacity not as an alternative nor a competitor, but as a co-equal sovereign communication layer to ensure uninterrupted access to DPI rails (Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker), telemedicine grids, school networks, maritime/border command links and NDMA warning channels.

The proposed NSCM aligns with BharatNet Phase-III, NDMA’s multi-hazard modernisation, island command infrastructure, Digital India backbone continuity and Vision India@2047’s principle that last-mile access cannot be contingent on road access, ridge stability or monsoon survivability, the pre-Budget recommendation said.