India bets on satellite broadband to bridge rural digital divide

Sayi Gharat, 9, attends school online using her mother's mobile phone in Dunge village in western India. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

DUNGE, India: The day started well for Sayi Gharat. The nine-year-old schoolgirl managed to connect easily to her online science class, as she sat on a daybed in her grandmother’s home in western India.

But Sayi knew she would not be able to stay in the same spot for long due to the shaky mobile Internet connection she relied on for her education as classes in Dunge village and across India moved online when Covid-19 struck in March 2020.