India: Minister says all smartphones to have ISRO's NavIC by 2025 end

India's Minister of State (MoS) for Electronic and Information Technology (IT) Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Thursday (September 14) that all smartphones will have the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) navigation tech NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) by the end of 2025. Speaking to reporters, MoS Chandrasekhar said that 5G smartphones would have to support NavIC by January 1, 2025, and other smartphones by December 2025.

He added that the central government could consider giving incentives for using Indian-made or -designed NavIC-supporting chips in system designs in the next round of the PLI scheme.

Chandrasekhar's announcement comes as news came out that American technology giant Apple's recently launched iPhone models - iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will support NavIC. This is the first time that Apple has added support for NavIC to any of its iPhone models.

Speaking to the news agency ANI, MoS Chandrasekhar said, "The world's largest company in technology Apple has launched its new iPhone 15. During this launch, India is achieving two milestones."

Chandrasekhar said the first milestone was that the availability of iPhone models in India would be on the same day as the availability of them in New York and London. "And the second is that the NavIC GPS satellite system developed by ISRO would be present in the iPhone 15," he added.

The minister also lauded the incorporation of NavIC into these iPhone models.

(With inputs from agencies)

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