In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha recently, the Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development said that 222 institutions are currently participating in the Sanchar Mitra Scheme.
About Sanchar Mitra Scheme
It is a youth-oriented initiative by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications.
It is aimed at harnessing the energy and potential of young students to spread awareness about safe digital behaviour.
Under this scheme, student volunteers, named as Sanchar Mitra, will raise public awareness about mobile safety, telecom fraud prevention, and government digital initiatives
They will conduct outreach in communities, schools, and public spaces to educate citizens on responsible and secure use of telecom services.
This scheme is open to students from those technical institutes that have active telecom, electronics, computers, cybersecurity, or similar programs and have agreed to participate in the scheme.
Sanchar Mitras will receive necessary training from experts and from the National Communications Academy-Technology (NCA-T)
The Sanchar Mitras will receive various training on subjects like cybersecurity, emerging technologies in the telecom sector, telecom policies and regulations, etc
The scheme offers top performers,
access, on a best-effort basis, to research and development (R&D) projects and telecom start-ups;
involvement in policy and standards work;
participation in field surveys and DoT initiatives;
exposure to national conferences and events
Recognition and incentives will be coordinated through DoT units, leveraging existing resources and partnerships.
The scheme has been implemented across all states/UTs through the licensed service area (LSA) field offices of DoT
IAS-2026 - OPTIONAL / GEOGRAPHY / PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION / SOCIOLOGY / ANTHROPOLOGY / ORIENTATION ON 03 & 04-10-2025 
