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ISRO to upgrade ‘Indian GPS’, NavIC, to widen user base

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Science & Technology
  • Published
    27th Oct, 2022

Context 

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on a series of improvements to the NavIC, or India’s equivalent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), so that more people are motivated to install it and use it.

What is NavIC?

Out of 7 satellites, 3 are geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites and 4 are geosynchronous orbit (GSO) satellites.

  • NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is a constellation of seven satellites, developed by
  • NavIC was originally approved in 2006 at a cost of $174 million. It was expected to be completed by late 2011, but only became operational in 2018.
  • Coverage: NavIC covers the whole of India’s landmass and up to 1,500 km (930 miles) from its boundaries.
  • Usage: Currently, NavIC’s use is limited. It is being used
    • in public vehicle tracking in India
    • for providing emergency warning alerts to fishermen venturing into the deep sea where there is no terrestrial network connectivity
    • for tracking and providing information related to natural disasters
  • With NavIC, India is part of the group of countries that have their own positioning system, which includes:
    • (US)GPS
    • Russia (GLONASS)
    • European Union (Galileo)
    • China (BeiDou Navigation Satellite System)

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