The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajiv Chandrashekhar, has announced that by the end of 2025, every smartphone manufacturer must include NavIC functionality in their mobile devices.
Companies can achieve this by either incorporating NavIC-powered chips or providing NavIC chipsets.
Notably, Apple has already embraced NavIC in its latest iPhone series, including the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.
For those unfamiliar with NavIC, it stands for “Navigation with Indian Constellation” in English.
This technology is India’s indigenous GPS system developed by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and aims to reduce the country’s reliance on the American GPS system.
Incentives for Companies
The Minister of State emphasized that 5G smartphones must support NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) by January 1, 2025. Other mobile companies are expected to implement this feature in their phones by December 2025.
Furthermore, the government is considering providing incentives to encourage the use of NavIC-supporting chips made or designed in India in the upcoming rounds of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, offering benefits to companies.
Utilizing NavIC for Critical Applications
Currently, the Indian Army and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) utilize indigenous GPS for various purposes.
NDMA relies on NavIC for its warning dissemination system, which issues alerts for significant natural disasters such as landslides, earthquakes, floods, and avalanches.
Additionally, the Indian National Center for Ocean Information System (INCOIS) employs NavIC to provide warnings regarding cyclones, high waves, and tsunamis to deep-sea fishermen.
