At the three-day ISG ISRS Symposium 2023, S. Somnath explained the need and importance of India’s indigenous navigation system NaviC. The symposium held at Symbiosis International (Deemed University) featured ISRO chairman at the Vikram Sarabhai memorial session.
NaviC currently consists of 7 satellites that cover India and 1500km beyond the country’s boundary. However, only 5 of these satellites are in operation due to which a string of challenges are presented which were addressed by Somnath.
He said, “The commercial segment is not incorporating the NaviC system due to the presence of well-established systems like GPS.” Another challenge that Somnath presented was making NaviC compatible for multi-GNSS as well as providing regional services.
He put down some pointers to take note of these challenges:
- Improve user adoption
- Complete the 7-satellite
- Make it interoperable with other systems to accelerate adoption
- Add 4 more satellites to the constellation
Somnath also pointed out the various benefits of NaviC such as civilian safety, fishermen’s aid, real-time train information system, geofencing, strategic encrypted signals for PNT, and power grid synchronization.
Once NaviC gets to its full prowess, its ability to shadow GPS will remain to be seen. However, with India’s ambitious space plan, the realization of NaviC as a solid alternative to GPS is not off the cards.
