Couldn't they make it work for most of the population of India by putting stations near the border in neighboring countries?
If Sri Lanka also doesn't allow ground stations, that would make it pretty hard to cover southern India.
Even when there's orbital routing, there's likely capacity limits.
If Pakistan doesn't block ground stations, it may be a good solution for people in Jammu and Kashmir to get around the frequent government telecommunications shutdowns; assuming lax enforcement.
[1] https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/tmc-cla...