Meet the six finalists competing in the 2026 Viasat: Space for Good India Challenge

10-21-2026

4-minute read

As India’s space economy scales new heights, the next generation of innovators is stepping up to prove that space technology is about much more than rockets and orbits—it is about solving critical challenges right here on Earth.

The Viasat: Space for Good India 2026 Challenge has reached its thrilling climax. Following rigorous written concept rounds and digital media presentations, six brilliant university students and doctoral researchers have emerged as finalists. Hailing from institutions across the country, these finalists have designed innovative, space-based solutions that tackle everything from space debris and agricultural crop health to disaster warning systems and secure Internet of Things (IoT) frameworks.

Here is a look at the six exceptional finalists and the visionary concepts they are bringing to the grand finale on Tuesday, October 27 in New Delhi:

Aryan Gupta

Institution & Background: Pre-final year Mechanical Engineering student at IIT Roorkee (originally from New Delhi).
Concept: Sentinel: A Secure-by-Design Framework for D2D IoT
The Innovation: As millions of remote sensors go online across India to monitor everything from farm soil moisture to railway tracks and pipeline pressure where cell towers don't reach, they increasingly talk directly to satellites. However, these devices often lack a way to verify if a satellite is legitimate or if their data has been tampered with. Sentinel introduces a lightweight, battery-efficient security layer that allows sensors to securely authenticate their identity and trust their satellite connection, ensuring that massive satellite IoT rollouts remain tamper-proof and reliable.

Adeetya Uppal

Institution & Background: Fourth-year Aerospace Engineering Dual Degree (B.Tech + M.Tech) student at IIT Kharagpur (originally from Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra).
Concept: DRISHTI: AI Guardian for Sustainable Orbits
The Innovation: With tens of thousands of pieces of space debris orbiting Earth, traditional collision-warning protocols can take hours for human operators to react to, wasting valuable fuel and endangering operational satellites. DRISHTI uses artificial intelligence to autonomously monitor for dangerous debris, calculate the safest evasion trajectory, and transmit avoidance commands in real time over Viasat’s satellite network. Rooted in Adeetya's research on autonomous spacecraft proximity operations, the system aims to keep orbital pathways safe for global communications, navigation, and disaster response.

Nived Krishna

Institution & Background: PhD student in Computer Science at IIT Kharagpur (originating from Kodungallur, Kerala).
Concept: MARK: Multi-Orbit Alert Relay Network
The Innovation: During natural disasters like cyclones, floods, or earthquakes, India’s government emergency alerts can fail to reach remote Himalayan valleys, tribal forest belts, or coastal communities if local cell towers are knocked out or never existed. MARK creates a resilient second path by relaying emergency warnings via satellite—first to low-cost community receivers at panchayat offices and schools to trigger local sirens, and eventually straight to consumer phones. The goal ensures that a citizen in a signal-dead valley receives life-saving alerts at the exact same moment as someone in a major metro.

Parth Bhagwat Kharat

Institution & Background: Third-year Computer Engineering student at Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Technology, Pune, and an AI/agentic engineering intern at SGRAMX.
Concept: BhuKavach: Satellite Collapse Triage Layer
The Innovation: Designed to sit quietly inside buildings for years, BhuKavach is an intelligent structural sensor that instantly detects a building collapse and transmits its exact GPS coordinates. It prioritizes local networks but seamlessly falls back to satellite connectivity when terrestrial infrastructure fails. By cutting through post-disaster chaos, the system provides first responders with immediate, precise triage data on where to search first, accelerating rescue efforts when every second counts.

Shashank Kumar Singh

Institution & Background: PhD researcher in Biological Sciences and Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar (Computational Biology Laboratory), originally from Lucknow.
Concept: ChronoSentinel: Plant's Clock from Space
The Innovation: Bridging satellite Earth observation and plant circadian biology, ChronoSentinel tracks the internal biological clocks of crops and forests from space. Because plants undergo subtle shifts in their internal rhythms long before visible signs of disease, drought, or environmental stress appear on the surface, this technology aims to give farmers and land managers an early warning system. The result could revolutionize precision agriculture and ecological monitoring by spotting distress signals before they become naked-eye visible.

Tanatswa Manjeya

Institution & Background: Final-year Electrical and Electronics Engineering student at Aditya University (originally from Harare, Zimbabwe).
Concept: Aegis
The Innovation: When natural disasters wipe out power grids and cellular infrastructure, Aegis deploys rugged, solar-powered hardware pods ("Aegis-PODs") to establish emergency Wi-Fi bubbles, letting stranded citizens send direct SOS messages via Viasat satellites. More than just a backup communication tool, Aegis acts as a regional "digital twin," continuously analyzing environmental telemetry like soil moisture and bridge strain. This allows emergency managers to use AI to predict infrastructure failures—such as a dam or bridge collapse—and proactively map out safe evacuation routes ahead of impending destruction.

What’s next?

These six finalists are competing for a total prize pool of ₹11,50,000 (including ₹5,00,000 for first place, ₹3,75,000 for second, and ₹2,75,000 for third), alongside invaluable mentorship from Viasat industry experts. Their journeys showcase how deep technical ingenuity, paired with satellite innovation, can build a safer, more connected, and resilient world.