Hyderabad student designs satellite receiver to aid remote Himalayan communities
Hyderabad student Aagam Jain has developed SummitSathi, a low-cost satellite weather receiver designed to bring cloud images to remote Himalayan villages without internet or mobile connectivity. Three receivers will serve 10 villages in Himachal Pradesh's Seraj Valley
Hyderabad: Aagam Jain, a Grade 12 IB student at Indus International School, Hyderabad, has designed and built SummitSathi, a low-cost satellite weather receiver that brings cloud images directly from weather satellites to remote Himalayan villages without requiring internet or mobile connectivity.
Three receivers will be deployed across 10 villages in the Seraj Valley of Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, reaching more than 1,000 residents.
According to the project team, the system will provide local weather information during monsoon-related communication outages, helping save lives. Three local operators have been trained to operate the system, enabling communities to access satellite weather images even when mobile networks fail.
The device is not a cloudburst prediction system or a replacement for official weather warnings, but an additional source of local weather information.
Aagam Jain has filed an Indian patent application as the sole inventor and is scheduled to present the work at ECRS 2026, an international remote-sensing conference.
