Tamil Nadu Govt distributes NavIC-powered ISRO Gadgets to Fishermen for Timely Alerts

Tamil Nadu Government distributes NavIC-powered ISRO Gadgets to Fishermen for Timely Alerts: Details, Features, Aim, Highlights

Tamil Nadu Government has distributed 200 NavIC- powered satellite-enabled communication devices developed by ISRO to 80 fishing boat groups in Tamil Nadu.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami distributed the gadgets to seven fishermen engaged in deep sea fishing in Chennai. These gadgets aim to help the Tamil Nadu fishermen to get cyclone and weather updates on a real-time basis.

Features

These gadgets, which are of the size of a soapbox, are basically ‘receivers’ which will produce a beep when alerts are received by the device.

These are Bluetooth enabled and the alerts received can be read on the NavIC App which can be downloaded on an android phone.

The alerts will be in the Tamil language so that the fisherman find it easy to understand. These gadgets have been given free of cost and there is no recurring cost associated with these devices.

About NavIC

NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) can be understood as the Indian version of the American GPS (Global Positioning System).

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System constellation consists of eight satellites.

NavIC provides accurate real-time position, navigation and timing services over India and region extending 1,500 km around Indian borders.

In 2017, several fishermen went missing in the cyclone Ockhi and Tamil Nadu government had to face severe criticism for not providing timely weather alerts to fishermen. For this reason, the Tamil Nadu government had declared giving these gadgets free of cost to fishermen in this year’s state budget.