The Indian government has officially launched its domestic Cell Broadcast emergency warning system, SACHET, sending a nationwide test message to mobile subscribers. Developed by C-DOT, this platform is designed for immediate catastrophe alerts and has already been used to send over 134 billion SMS alerts for various disasters.
If your phone buzzed today with an urgent-sounding government alert, you were not alone and there was no need to panic. On Saturday, the Indian government officially unveiled its domestic Cell Broadcast emergency warning system, sending a test message to millions of mobile subscribers nationwide. The message, titled “Extremely Severe Alert,” notified the public that India had launched a new immediate catastrophe alerting service based on domestic technology and made it plain that no public action was necessary.
The system was introduced on May 2, 2026, by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, according to a government announcement. The platform known as SACHET, or the Integrated Alert System, is at the center of the project. Based on the Common Alerting Protocol advised by the International Telecommunication Union, SACHET was created by the Department of Telecommunications’ top research and development center, the Center for Development of Telematics, or C-DOT. At the moment, it operates in all 36 Indian states and union territories.
To date, disaster management authorities have used the system to send over 134 billion SMS alerts in more than 19 Indian languages during natural disasters, weather warnings, and cyclonic events.
Citizens may have received test messages in English, Hindi and regional languages if the test channel is enabled in their mobile settings. Authorities clarified that these messages were part of a drill.