Addressing the urgent need of public safety in the country, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad has put out an order which will make it compulsory for all phone manufacturers in the country to have built in panic buttons and also GPS.
The phones should have the panic button functionality by pressing the numeric 5 key and emergency call functionality by pressing the numeric 9 key.
Commenting on the rise of crimes against women, Prasad said, “Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women, I have taken a decision that from January 1, 2017, no cell phone can be sold without a provision for panic button and from January 1, 2018, mobile sets should also have inbuilt GPS.”
The funds for this will be allocated from the proceeds from the Nirbhaya fund set up by the UPA government.
The Ministries of Telecom and Women and Child Development are working on the proposal together. Starting 2018, no mobile handset manufacturer in India will be allowed to roll out phones which do not have the functionalities of automatic location identification through satellite GPS. Confirming the proposal, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said, “The phones will have a panic button which will be GPS-connected. We are in conversation with phone manufacturers and the proposal is likely to be executed in few months.”
With the number of smartphone users increasing by the day, this change in the smartphones will go a long way in ensuring the safety of users.
News source: The Indian Express
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