A planetarium in Mysuru is about to beam science into the living rooms, village halls, and classrooms of an entire state. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday, 12 November 2026, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's inauguration of the COSMOS Planetarium in Mysuru will be broadcast live across 10,000 centres in Karnataka — spanning Gram Panchayats, Arivu Kendras, and colleges.

10,000 screens, one moment across Karnataka

The scale of the broadcast is the headline within the headline. By routing the inauguration signal through rural local-body centres, state knowledge hubs, and higher-education institutions simultaneously, the government is turning a single ribbon-cutting in Mysuru into a statewide civic event. Gram Panchayats — the bedrock of India's rural self-governance network — double here as community broadcast points, a model that successive administrations have used to widen access to national occasions well beyond urban audiences.

Arivu Kendras, Karnataka's network of community knowledge and digital-access centres, are also part of the loop — giving the outreach a specifically science-and-learning flavour rather than a purely ceremonial one.

What COSMOS Planetarium promises for young learners

Sitharaman framed the facility's significance squarely around students. The planetarium, she said, 'will help create greater interest in science and astronomy, especially among young students,' and 'will provide a practical space for students to explore space science well beyond their standard curriculum.' That last phrase carries real weight: India's National Education Policy 2020 made experiential, hands-on science learning a cornerstone of its vision, and a full-scale planetarium directly answers that call in a way no textbook can.

Mysuru — a city with a long tradition of educational and cultural institutions — provides an apt home. The facility positions Karnataka as a node in India's expanding science-outreach infrastructure, a pattern seen in planetarium expansions and digital-learning rollouts across the country over the past decade.

Modi-era science infrastructure and what comes next

The COSMOS inauguration fits a broader template: a flagship facility in a Tier-2 city, amplified by digital reach into the last mile. The question that follows naturally is whether this model migrates. Watchers of education policy will be tracking whether Karnataka integrates planetarium resources into state school curricula formally, and whether comparable facilities are announced for other states in the near term. For now, tomorrow's live broadcast ensures that the first view of COSMOS is not reserved for the guests in the Mysuru hall — it belongs to every student huddled around a screen in a village panchayat office, too.