ISRO in Talks with Xiaomi to Add NavIC Chipsets to Smartphones in India

India'south homegrown positioning system, NavIC is taking shape, and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is reportedly in talks with Xiaomi to include chipsets that support NavIC in its smartphones sold in Bharat.

For those unaware, NavIC is India's culling to the Global Positioning System (GPS) and is designed to provide accurate location information to users in India, and in the region extending upwards to one,500kms exterior the country's purlieus. NavIC has already been certified by 3GPP, and Qualcomm is reportedly developing chips with NavIC support baked into them for future smartphones.

An ISRO official was quoted as saying "Qualcomm has announced that its chip is going to have NavIC and they are releasing it. Now well-nigh Xiaomi is in understanding to have information technology. Xiaomi may launch its mobile phones with NavIC chipsets."

If reports are to exist believed, ISRO's talks with Xiaomi are in the last stages, and if all goes smoothly, the Chinese giant might launch smartphones with NavIC support in the coming 6 to seven months in India. Patently, ISRO and Xiaomi are planning on bringing NavIC support to mid-range smartphones first, to make the engineering science accessible to more people. "Xiaomi is in agreement, though nothing is finalised nonetheless. We are targeting center-level mobiles. That fashion, it is attainable to more than people." an ISRO official was quoted as proverb past Network18 in Bengaluru.

India'due south homegrown NavIC positioning system will provide a standard positioning service that will be available to all users, and a restricted service which will exist encrypted and accessible just to authorised users.

Meanwhile, ISRO is also working on Chandrayaan-three, which was recently authorised for 2020 by the Indian Government afterward Chandrayaan-2's Vikram Lander crash-landed on the surface of the Moon late in 2019. 2020 might be a fairly heady year for the Indian infinite exploration programme.