India's navigation system means business: NavIC edge for tech firms

The home-grown alternative to GPS is becoming a useful tool for tech firms

The country has a new boast to make in scientific innovation: NavIC, an independent standalone navigation satellite system developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) that can be used by sectors ranging from logistics to telecommunications.

Apple, the world’s largest technology company, in September launched iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models of its smartphones that for the first time support NavIC, or Navigation with Indian Constellation. Developers using Apple’s iOS app can choose NavIC like they do with the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States of America, Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo, or China's BeiDou.

Before Apple, only a few smartphone models of Chinese companies Xiaomi, Vivo, and Poco offered chipsets supporting communication with the NavIC satellite constellation. India in September said it may make it mandatory for all 5G phones sold in the country to support NavIC by January 2025. It is likely to mandate NavIC-enabled chips in all mobile devices by 2025.

NavIC consists of a constellation of seven satellites and a network of ground stations and it is touted to be more accurate than GPS. Software development firms would prefer NavIC-enabled systems in their products, as it follows the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) that operates on a much wider scale.

“Fundamentally, NavIC adds on to the potential number of satellites that a device can bank on to allow app developers to give a more accurate positioning in a faster time. Importantly, it also has the capability of emergency broadcast communication. We have built a NavIC app with Isro and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services where fishermen can get emergency cyclone alerts even when there is no cellular connectivity because that is broadcast through NavIC,” said Rohan Verma, chief executive officer and executive director of MapmyIndia, a digital map maker.

MapmyIndia has a partnership to use Isro’s Bhuvan, a satellite application programme, for providing consumer services and 3D mapping. It supplies NavIC-enabled devices for vehicles and plans to further expand its product line.

NavIC covers the whole of India's landmass and up to 1,500 km beyond the country’s borders, providing user position accuracy of better than 20 metres, according to the government.

“…NavIC is helping us to achieve nearly 5-centimetre level accuracy that our data provides,” said Sajid Malik, chairman and managing director of Genesys International, which provides advanced mapping, survey, and geospatial services.

GNSS – used by NavIC – gathers information from multiple navigation systems at the same time, making it suitable for densely populated Indian cities. “India is unique because it has a very dense urban ecosystem – something that is called an urban canyon – as well as remote areas that need a very good navigation system. NavIC is an addition to the availability of this service to Indian companies like us,” Malik said.

NavIC’s commercial use is just beginning. “Commercialisation of the NavIC system has not happened at a desired pace. One of the many reasons was that receivers of this system, which require special chips, were not manufactured (here). Since last year, the L1 frequency band has also been made available through the NavIC signal along with the L2 and S bands. This makes it easier for the mobile industry to adopt and have this system,” said retired Lieutenant General A K Bhatt, director general of the Indian Space Association, referring to frequencies used for satellite location. (Please check this quote—it has been trimmed a bit)

Bengaluru-based Accord Software & System is among Indian startups that have started designing and manufacturing NavIC-enabled chips. GlobalFoundries is Accord’s chip manufacturing partner.

“We can service the most aggressive volume forecasts for the Indian markets, enabling differentiated GNSS solutions at competitive price points. We have already produced half a million chips, with another one million in the works. Over the next three years, we want this figure to cross the five million mark, which is a conservative estimate,” said Narayana Rao, vice-president for business development, at Accord.

The company provides solutions for automotive, telecom, and logistics. It does not plan to venture into smartphone chips where companies like Qualcomm are offering NavIC chipsets specialized for smartphones and personal computing.

The automotive industry’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) standard requires all public and commercial vehicles to deploy NavIC-enabled vehicle monitoring systems for devices installed on or after April 2018.

Sudhir N S, senior vice-president for GNSS Systems at Accord, said NavIC would enable India-specific GNSS applications for vehicle safety, toll collection, logistics and telecom.

“Lower power consumption of NavIC chips is driven by the need for higher battery performance in embedded/Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. Our NavIC chips have been designed in an advanced semiconductor process node to meet low-power requirements,” he said.

Elena Geo Systems, a Bengaluru-based space technology company, provides NavIC-based navigation solutions to clients like Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Electronics.