Model Question and Answers for APSC | What do you understand about ‘Standard Positioning Systems’ and ‘Protection Positioning Systems’ in the GPS era? Discuss the advantages India perceives from its ambitious IRNSS programme employing just seven satellites.

Ans: GPS or Global Positioning System is a satellite-based navigation system that enables users to determine their precise location, speed, and time information. Standard Positioning System (SPS) is the basic GPS signal that is available to all users for free, while Protection Positioning System (PPS) is a more secure and encrypted GPS signal that is available only to authorized military and government users.

India's ambitious Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) programme, also known as NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), aims to provide an independent navigation system for India and the surrounding regions. It uses a constellation of seven satellites, three in geostationary orbit and four in inclined geosynchronous orbit.

It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. An Extended Service Area lies between primary service area and area enclosed by the rectangle from Latitude 30 deg South to 50 deg North, Longitude 30 deg East to 130 deg East.

IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.

The Advantages Of The IRNSS Programme For India Are Numerous. Some Of Them Are:

• Self-Reliance: With its own navigation system, India reduces its dependence on foreign systems like GPS, which is owned by the United States.

• Better Accuracy: IRNSS offers position accuracy up to 10 meters, while the GPS provides accuracy up to 20 meters. This makes it suitable for various applications such as disaster management, vehicle tracking, and navigation in remote areas.

• Regional Coverage: IRNSS provides better coverage over the Indian subcontinent and neighboring regions compared to GPS, which was designed for global coverage.

• Security: With its own navigation system, India can better secure its communication and navigation channels, as the system is designed to be encrypted and more secure than GPS.

• Economic Benefits: The IRNSS programme has the potential to generate economic benefits by creating opportunities for Indian companies in the development and production of navigation-related technology and services.