India Racing To Adopt NavIC: Doesn’t Want To Depend On GPS Or Other Foreign Navigation Systems

India is rapidly upgrading its digital navigation system. The country is keen to adopt its indigenously developed and built NavIC navigation system.

India recently launched a large satellite called NVS-01. With regular launches of such satellites, India is planning a constellation for regional use. Will NavIC rival America's GPS, China's BeiDou, Russian GLONASS, and other navigational systems?

Why Does India Need A Self-Reliant And Dependable Navigation System?

ISRO has planned a regional navigation satellite system called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC). It was earlier known as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

The NavIC constellation of geosynchronous and geostationary satellites will address India's growing need for accurate location positioning, navigation, and precision timing requirements. From a regional perspective, NavIC will be better than other popular navigation systems such as GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and others.

Fully deployed, the NavIC will comprise a constellation of seven satellites and a dense network of ground stations operating 24x7. Three constellation satellites will be in the geostationary orbit and four satellites in inclined geosynchronous orbit.

Fully operational, NavIC will not only cover the entire Indian region, but it will also cover a region up to 1,500km beyond the country's boundary. NavIC is being optimized to provide user position accuracy of better than 20 meters and timing accuracy lesser than 50 nanoseconds.

Such vast coverage will allow India to keep a close eye on the terrain and monitor for potential natural and manmade threats. India acutely felt the need to develop its own navigational system after the US denied the use of its GPS constellation of satellites during the Kargil Conflict in 1999.

Will India's NavIC Help The Country Citizens?

NavIC is primarily intended for the government, military, and other such big organizations. It will help with disaster relief, irrigation, weather monitoring, vehicle tracking, infrastructure planning, and other important projects and initiatives.

However, NavIC will also help Indian citizens better understand the country's civilian infrastructure. So far, the compatibility of mobile handsets with the system has limited NavIC's availability to the masses.

NavIC's adoption by the common citizenry is about to explode. Several smartphone and electronics manufacturers have gradually started supporting the navigation system.

Simply put, India's NavIC may soon surpass America's GPS, Russian GLONASS (Globalnaya Navigazionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema), European Galileo, Japanese QZSS (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System), and Chinese BeiDou. However, NavIC won't rival GPS simply because the US has placed a constellation of 24 satellites plus spares, which circle the Earth every 12 hours in 11,000-mile-high orbits.