All smartphones directed to have NavIC by December 2025: MoS IT Chandrasekhar

Minister of state for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said all smartphones will have to support NavIC by the end of 2025. This follows Apple successfully supporting the indigenous navigation system in some of the new iPhone 15 models. 5G smartphones would have to support NavIC, short for Navigation with Indian Constellation, by 1 January 2025, and other phones by December 2025.  

 NavIC was developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). 

The minister said the government could also consider giving incentives for using Indian-made or designed NavIC-supporting chips in system designs in the next round of production-linked incentives scheme. 

“In line with the incentives that we have announced under the IT hardware PLI (production-linked incentive), where cashback to companies can significantly go up if they use India-designed or -manufactured chips in their systems, we will extend the same idea to the smartphone PLI as well for using domestic chips that support NavIC," Chandrasekhar said. 

“We want to create an incentive structure that will encourage companies under the PLI schemes to use NavIC-supporting chips designed or made in India," Chandrasekhar further added. 

Incentives similar to those under the IT hardware PLI could be offered to smartphone makers in the revised scheme. He however did not specify the timeline for when the revised scheme will be brought out. 

Under the IT hardware PLI scheme, companies that manufacture laptops, computers and servers and source locally made components, including chips, will get additional incentives. 

The minister added that the government has already made it mandatory in the automobile segment to use GPS that uses the NavIC chipsets.