BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation Isro ) has met only 50% of its 12th Five Year Plan’s target as far as launching of communication satellites are concerned, leaving the country dependent on foreign transponders for growing needs.“We presently have 300 operational transponders,” Isro Chairman Kiran Kumar told TOI, on Sunday. Out of the 300 transponders that meet the needs of Indian communication, 100 are leased from foreign satellites.Acknowledging that the situation was worse, Kumar said Isro is working on bridging the gap between leased foreign transponders and India’s own with a few launches lined up for this year and in the coming one. “India at least needs another 200 transponders to meet the growing communications demand,” he added.In the 12th Plan period, Isro was set a target of launching 14 communication satellites—devised after taking into account the demand—but has managed to only launch seven of these. The agency successfully launched GSAT-10, GSAT-14, GSAT-16, GSAT-7, GSAT-6, GSAT-15 and GSAT-18.The severe shortage—with a growing population and increasing number of phone and internet users—had prompted Isro to issue a request for proposal (RFP) seeking to lease out some more transponders in December 2016.“We are increasing transponders in the KU and S-Band, and we have a few more than needed in the C and extended C band,” Kumar said. However, the increasing demand for transponders is not just from the telecommunications side, which is struggling with call-drop problems, among other things, but also direct-to-home (DTH) sector.And, so far as DTH goes, Kumar said: “We are managing to close the gap. Of the 95 transponders in use, 40 are our own and 55 are leased ones.” In the coming year, Isro has lined up the launches of GSAT-19, GSAT-17, GSAT-6A—which will be for Defence forces—and GSAT-11, all communication satellites, to put more transponders into space. Of these, GSAT-11 and 17 are scheduled to be launched outside of India.