Why in News?

• Recently, ISRO Chairman announced that the ISRO is working on improvements to make NavIC more user friendly and give it a global reach.

About

• NavIC or Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is a constellation of 7 satellites.
• An independent stand-alone navigation satellite system (total 8) developed by the ISRO.
• It covers India and a region extending up to 1,500 km beyond the Indian mainland.
• It was approved in 2006 and became operational in 2018.

Comparing with the GPS

• GPS caters to users across the globe & its satellites circle the earth twice a day.
• Three more navigation systems that have global coverage-

• Galileo from the European Union.
• Russia's GLONASS.
• China’s Beidou.

• Japan's QZSS covers Asia-Oceania region, with a focus on Japan.

Applications

• Limited use applications such as public vehicle tracking.
• Providing emergency warning alerts to fishermen.
• Tracking and information dissemination related to natural disasters.

Challenges

• Lack of civilian navigational use because mobile phones are not compatible to process its signals.
• Adding the L1 band (part of the GPS and responsible for civilian navigational use) is a challenge.
• Lack of Long Code (responsible for strategic navigation).
• Need to place more satellites in constellation to widen the reach.