Why in news?

• The Tamil Nadu government has distributed 200 NavIC- powered satellite-enabled communication devices developed by ISRO to 80 fishing boat groups in Tamil Nadu. These gadgets will help the Tamil Nadu fishermen to get cyclone and weather updates on a real-time basis.

NavIC Gadgets:

• 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.
• They 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.
• The gadgets have been given free of cost and there is no recurring cost associated with these devices.
• Last year 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 budge.

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.