Indian Government Made Panic Button Mandatory For New Smartphones

In lieu to ensure women safety, the Government of India has made Panic Button mandatory for all new smartphones from 1st January 2017. The initiative is being taken to make a smartphone a successful apparatus for self-protection, particularly for women. Earlier, the Government had launched one emergency '112' number for availing services of police, ambulance, and fire department.

"Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi on Monday. "I have taken a decision that from January 1, 2017, no cell phone can be sold without a provision for the panic button, and from January 1, 2018, mobile sets should also have Global Positioning System inbuilt," Prasad said.

The notification about the same did not specify about the agency that would connect the number, but sources in the ministry said the decision will be taken soon. The Gazette of India notice said from January 1, 2017, no cellular handset producing company should offer in India: "The feature phones without the facility of panic button by pressing 'numeric key - 5' or 'numeric key - 9' to invoke emergency call." It also said: "Smartphones without the facility of emergency call button by pressing the same for the long time to invoke emergency call or the use of existing power on or off button, when short pressed thrice in quick succession."

The notification also included: "With effect from January 1, 2018, no mobile phone handset manufacturing company shall sell the new mobile phone handset in India without the facility of identifying the location through satellite-based GPS." The notification defined a feature phone as one that can access the Internet and play music but lacks provisions of an operating system feature of a personal computer. Smartphone, on the other hand, has all features of a personal computer system.

The leading smartphones maker like Vivo, Xiaomi, and Karbonn whom IANS attempted to contact for a response declined to remark on the notification at this point. It's noteworthy that in March this year, the Government had recommended that individuals will need to simply dial "112" for emergency assistance from police, ambulance or the fire department.

The telecom department had recommended that all current emergency numbers- for example, 100, 101, 102 and 108 must be held as optional numbers, which would then be re-routed to the single emergency number 112.

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