- The iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max come with
NavIC integration with the new Apple A17 Pro chipset. - NavIC is a stand-alone
satellite navigation system developed byISRO . - The government is now considering making NavIC mandatory for smartphones and other devices.
This comes soon after the recently launched iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max were integrated with NavIC, thanks to the new Apple A17 Pro chipset. This is the first time the iPhone maker has extended support for NavIC to its iPhone models.
NavIC has been developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is a constellation of seven satellites and a network of ground stations operating round the clock. Three satellites of the constellation are placed in geostationary orbit and four satellites are placed in inclined geosynchronous orbit.
NavIC’s coverage currently includes India and around 1,500 km beyond India’s boundaries. NavIC signals are interoperable with the other global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals namely GPS, Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou. The Glonass system has been developed by Russia, Galileo by the European Union and BeiDou by China.
Calling the inclusion of NavIC on iPhones a significant achievement for the country, the government is considering making it a standard practice that all devices using GPS technology should have NavIC-powered chipsets inside, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said on Thursday.
"We're planning to make it a standard practice that all devices using GPS technology should have NAVIC-powered chipsets or NAVIC chips inside. When you look at the IT PLI scheme this time, it includes incentives for system designers and manufacturers who incorporate Indian-designed chips into their products," said Chandrasekhar.
Interestingly, smartphones powered by chipsets from Qualcomm and MediaTek have supported NavIC for a long time, going back to 2020. Few devices from Android smartphone makers also support NavIC.
India, in its 2021 satellite navigation draft policy highlighted the importance of NavIC and its plans to promote the technology. The government also mentioned that it will work towards “expanding the coverage from regional to global”.
The most important driver behind India developing NavIC was to reduce dependency on GPS and other global navigation systems which are controlled by other countries.
For those unaware, the United States which owns and controls GPS prevented India from using the technology during the Kargil war in 1999, making it difficult for India to identify the positions taken by Pakistani troops.
In addition to this, NavIC uses dual bands to offer improved accuracy and positioning. As per ISRO, NavIC is expected to offer a positional accuracy of 5 metres, compared to 20 to 30 metres offered by GPS.
With inputs from IANS.
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