The EDUSAT satellite weighing 1,950 kilograms (4,290 pounds) blasted off at 4:01 pm local time (1031 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

"We have got a perfect launch. I hope in the next few days we will have major operations running," P.S. Goel, director of the satellite centre, told reporters.

"It will be another beautiful bird in the sky spreading education."

The satellite, built with a mission life of seven years, will help train teachers and provide primary and university education in remote regions, said S. Krishnamurthy, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The agency in January announced a 900 million-rupee (19.5 million-dollar) project to use satellites to offer literacy instruction. Some 350 million of India's billion-plus people cannot read and only 13 percent finish high school.

India began the literacy project through the communications satellite INSAT-3A which is currently in orbit. The service will be shifted to the new satellite.

EDUSAT will initially link universities from three states -- southern Karnataka, western Maharashtra and central Madhya Pradesh. In the second phase the satellite will reach two more states and connect more than 1,000 classrooms.

The space program expects educational institutions and research agencies eventually to help fund the satellite.

"When it is fully operational the Indian Space Research Organisation will provide technical support in the replication of EDUSAT ground systems to manufacturers and service providers," Krishnamurthy said.

The satellite was sent into space by India's locally-built Geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle which can carry communication satellites weighing up to 2,000 kilograms.

India has been eyeing the lucrative launch market. The government last year approved an ambitious plan to send an unmanned mission to the moon by 2008, budgeting 83 million dollars for the project.

Of the 135 transponders India has in space, 11 are leased to the US-based firm Intelsat, bringing in 10 million dollars over a five-year period.

Another 24 of the transponders are used by India's state-run television, with the rest mostly leased by private operators.

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