Its time for Indians to say good-bye to Google Maps and welcome NAVIC
(which means ‘Navigator’ in Sanskrit). Basically, it’s a satellite navigation
system developed by our own ISRO to provide Reliable Position, Navigation, and Timing services over India at accurate positioning close to 5 meters, where
current GPS is now providing the accuracy up to 25-30 meters. It mostly covers
India and extending approximately1500 km around India.
This “Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System” (IRNSS) consists of 7
satellites and 2 satellites on the ground as a stand-by. NAVIC will provide two types of services
• Standard Positioning Service (SPS) for civilians
• Restricted service (RS) for authorized users including military.
When and why it has started?
The Indian government approved this project in May 2013 and the reason behind
this initiation is foreign government-controlled navigational systems are not
guaranteed in hostile situations, as happened to the Indian military in 1999
when it was dependent on the American GPS during the Kargil war.
Some applications of IRNSS-NAVIC
• Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation
• Disaster Management
• Vehicle tracking and fleet management
• Integration with mobile phones
• Precise Timing
• Mapping and Geodetic data capture
• Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travelers
• Visual and voice navigation for drivers
Technology Support
Qualcomm collaborated with ISRO to enable NAVIC on mobile, automotive
and IoT platforms to deliver superior Location-Based services to India’s
Industries and Technology Ecosystem and the first-ever NAVIC demonstration
using the Snapdragon Mobile Platforms is expected to be showcased by
Qualcomm during the India Mobile Congress at New Delhi on October 14-16.
It becomes available to everyone in the first half of 2020
This article was written by Yeshwanth Prabhala
Also Read:6 Paise/Minute for outgoing calls! Is this an end of the Golden-JIO era ?
