Indian GPS (global positioning system) has been named as NavIC. NavIC stands for Navigation with Indian Constellation. It is actually a regional positioning system (RPS) designed for India. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary. Recently, it has been approved by the international organization 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) This approval of global body means that now manufacturers can mass-produce the Navigation device compatible with India’s own GPS NavIC. ISRO has issued tender for NavIC Receiver Module Development.
There are other GPS systems also as American-GPS, Russian- GLONASS, Chinese-BeiDou and European Union's-Galileo. India has joined the elite club of countries having their own fleet of navigation satellite. India is fifth country which is now going to have very precise navigation system. All other GPS systems have 20-25 meters accuracy but Indian NavIC will have more than 20 meters accuracy.
As per ISRO, Satellite Navigation called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is mainly has two broad applications-
(a) GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN):
This is a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) implemented jointly with Airport Authority of India (AAI). The main objectives of GAGAN are to provide Satellite-based Navigation services with accuracy and integrity required for civil aviation applications and to provide better Air Traffic Management over Indian Airspace. The system will be interoperable with other international SBAS systems and provide seamless navigation across regional boundaries. The GAGAN Signal-In-Space (SIS) is available through GSAT-8 and GSAT-10.
(b) Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) : NavIC
This is an independent Indian Satellite based positioning system for critical National applications. The main objective is to provide Reliable Position, Navigation and Timing services over India and its neighbourhood, to provide fairly good accuracy to the user. The IRNSS will provide basically two types of services-
Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and Restricted Service (RS)
To date, ISRO has built a total of nine satellites in the IRNSS series; of which eight are currently in orbit. Three of these satellites are in geostationary orbit (GEO) while the remaining in geosynchronous orbits (GSO) that maintain an inclination of 29° to the equatorial plane. The IRNSS constellation was named as “NavIC” (Navigation with Indian Constellation) by the Honourable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and dedicated to the nation on the occasion of the successful launch of the IRNSS-1G satellite. The eight operational satellites in the IRNSS series, namely IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G and 1I were launched. The PSLV-39 / IRNSS-1H being unsuccessful; the satellite could not reach orbit.
IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS). NavIC IRNSS will have following application as described by ISRO-
Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation
Disaster Management
Vehicle tracking and fleet management
Integration with mobile phones
Precise Timing
Mapping and Geodetic data capture
Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travelers
Visual and voice navigation for drivers
Waiting for its signals in my smart phone. Kudos to ISRO.
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