India’s Department of Telecommunications has issued a notification to all smartphone manufacturers that by January 2017, all mobile handsets sold in the country will have a panic button so that women who are in dangerous situations will have a way to call for help without placing themselves in further danger. And by January 2018, mobile phones will also need to have built-in GPS so that it will be easier to locate the owner in case they are in distress.
Feature phones actually have push buttons for emergencies (numeric keys 5 and 9), but smartphones don’t have a default button for that. They will need to either have an emergency button or a facility that will send an alert when a user short-presses the power on/off button three times in quick succession. The government believes that emergency response apps takes longer to access and it would be easier if there was an existing button that can be configured to ask for help in distressing situations.
“Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of men,” said communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi stated that all smartphone manufacturers are on board with this new rule stated by the government. There are no reactions yet from any of the bigger OEMs that do business in India, so there is still no clear idea if they will cooperate.
But if they want to continue selling smartphones in the world’s second most populous country in the world, then they would have to comply with the new rules. The Panic button and Global Positioning System facility in all mobile phone handsets Rules, 2016 will be implemented by January 1, 2017 for the panic button and January 1, 2018 for the compulsory GPS locator.
VIA: Economic Times
