As reported by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the government intends to make NavIC support mandatory for all devices.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), also stated that the government intends to provide incentives for NavIC-powered processors in system design.

  

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

HIGHLIGHTS

• What is NavIC?
• How to us it?.
• Area and compatibility with devices.

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According to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, the Indian government intends to make it essential for all devices to support the native navigation system NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation). He also stated that the government intends to offer incentives for the use of NavIC-powered processors in system design.

According to Chandrasekhar, all 5G phones must enable NavIC by January 1, 2025, while all other phones (L1 band) must support it by December 31, 2025. This comes as the recently released Apple iPhone 15 incorporates the navigation technology created by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) into its hardware.

Also read | When will GPS be replaced in India by NavIC?

"Increasingly, as it is already in the automobile segment, we will make it almost mandatory that all devices that use GPS use the NavIC chipsets," Chandrasekhar stated during a press conference.

ISRO's NavIC, which is powered by seven satellites, covers India and its surrounding territories, including the Indian Ocean.

Aside from NavIC, other popular navigation systems include the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) of Russia, Galileo of the European Union, BeiDou of China, and QZSS of Japan.

Chandrasekhar mentioned Accord, claiming that it was the first Indian business to design NavIC chips. He stated that the company had already produced over one million 28 nm NavIC chips.

Also read | The iPhone 15 will support ISRO's NavIC GPS technology.

"In the automotive industry, since there is a chip available, there are sufficient reasons for the government to mandate that trackers in India be NavIC powered," he said, adding that NavIC can also be utilized in Thailand, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.  "So nothing prevents the device from being used in an automotive platform," Chandrasekhar explained.

NavIC in mobile devices

Chandrasekhar also discussed the IT Hardware PLI plan and how there are incentives for manufacturers who use Indian-designed or Indian-manufactured chips.

"So it's conceivable, and it's certainly our goal, that in the coming future, as mobile phone designs and our chip design mature and reach the granularity and sophistication required for mobile devices, that the chips themselves that power mobile devices will be NavIC chips," he said.

"We will certainly encourage mobile phone devices to incorporate that as well when we have a mobile phone grid chip, which is performance, competitive, and competitive in cost," he continued.

Recently, Apple added NavIC compatibility to a number of its newest iPhone 15 series handsets. This action seems to be in line with India's efforts to promote its in-house GPS navigation system substitute.

Apple has formally declared that NavIC support is a feature of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max on the technical specifications page.

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