New satellite being developed for rural net connectivity

India is developing an "unconventional" satellite which would focus on providing internet connectivity to the rural masses and render timely advice on various aspects of agriculture.     

It's a fast-track spacecraft for rural connectivity, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair told.     

"You know, if you take the country, even today more than 30,000 villages don't have proper connectivity. (With) Conventional type of satellites, we cannot meet that requirement", he said.     
"So, we have to go for spot beams, high bandwidth type of capacity to be built up. So, that only can make things happen", he said.     

Primarily aimed at rural areas, it's an INSAT-class (three tonne) satellite but the speciality would be that instead of having an all-India beam, it would have spot beams covering different parts of the country, and there would be a control hub by which it would be connected to national network.  

On the satellite's applications, Nair, also Secretary in the Department of Space, said "communication has to be established. Then, agricultural advices which need to be given to farmers in various aspects...that would be provided through that (the satellite)".     

The spacecraft would be launched by European space consortium, Arianespace, within two years, he added.