NavIC Integration into Aadhaar Enrolment Devices

Context The Centre has been pushing cell phone makers in India to make their instruments compatible with NavIC. More about the news:
  • The Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) will soon be integrated into Aadhaar enrolment devices according to the Department of Space (DoS).
  • The department has facilitated successful conduction of field trials, and is providing technical expertise in finalisation of procurement specification of the devices
  • Currently the Aadhaar enrolment kits that are used to collect and verify personal details are linked to the American Global Positioning System (GPS).
  • The process of making the devices compatible with NavIC will involve hardware alterations.
About NavIC
  • ISRO has established a regional navigation satellite system (NavIC) to meet the positioning, navigation and timing requirements of the nation.
  • It was erstwhile known as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
  • NavIC is designed with:
    • Three satellites placed in geostationary orbit. Four satellites are placed in inclined geosynchronous orbit with equatorial crossing.
    • The ground network: It consists of control centre, precise timing facility, range and integrity monitoring stations, etc.
  • NavIC offers two services: Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian users and Restricted Service (RS) for strategic users.
  • NavIC coverage area includes India and a region up to 1500 km beyond Indian boundary.
  • NavIC signals are designed to provide user position accuracy better than 20m and timing accuracy better than 50ns.
  • NavIC SPS signals are interoperable with the other global navigation satellite system signals namely GPS, Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou.

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