India's Own NavIC To be Embedded Into Smartphones Soon. What Is GPS Rival NavIC And How Will It Change Navigation

We might soon be able to find indigenously developed navigation system NavIC embedded in smartphones.

Smartphone industry is wary of increasing costs as accommodating NavIC in handsets by January 2023 would need hardware changes.

We might soon be able to find indigenously developed navigation system NavIC embedded in smartphones by companies like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and others as India seeks to find an alternative to the Global Positioning System popularly known as GPS, owned by the US. However, the smartphone industry is wary of increasing costs as accommodating NavIC in handsets by January 2023 would require hardware changes, the media has reported.

India is pushing tech giants to make smartphones compatible with its home-grown navigation system within months and brands fear elevated costs and disruptions as the move requires hardware changes, says a report by news agency Reuters that cited two industry sources as well as government documents.

According to the central government, NavIC provides more accurate domestic navigation and also the use of NavIC would benefit the economy and it is in line with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign.

It should be noted that countries such as Japan, China, the European Union and Russia have their homegrown global or regional navigation systems to rival GPS. However, in India NavIC has been operational since 2018, and it was approved for use in 2006. Homegrown NavIC is not popular and its uptake has been minimal with inclusion mandatory in public vehicle location trackers.

As per the government and industry documents, Modi's administration and space officials want to broaden its use, and have this year pushed smartphone giants to make hardware changes to support NavIC, in addition to GPS, in new phones they will sell from January 2023, the Reuters report added.

Homegrown NavIC is currently fully under the control of the central government, and it wants to take it globally like the GPS. Countries like China has its own navigation system called Beidou and Russia has GLONASS.