The Indian government has announced that all mobile phones sold in the country from January 1, 2017 should come with a panic button that will allow anyone in need the ability to contact authorities with a single key. Built-in GPS is also a mandatory feature in phones going on sale next year. The move comes after the government has instituted a single "112" number for emergencies, including police services, ambulances, and the fire department.
For smartphones that cannot accommodate dedicated buttons — such as the Lumia 950 and 950 XL — manufacturers will have to incorporate a mechanism through which users can contact authorities by pressing the power button thrice in quick succession:
Smartphones without the facility of emergency call button by pressing the same for long time to invoke emergency call or the use of existing power on or off button, when short pressed thrice in quick succession.
The feature phones without the facility of panic button by pressing 'numeric key - 5' or 'numeric key - 9' to invoke emergency call.
From Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad:
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 Global Positioning System inbuilt.
Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women.
Reader comments
Indian government mandates panic button on all phones sold in the country from 2017
Is India such a dangerous place ?
Iceland is 112.
Make amusing when bhabhi dials!
Bye bye freedom! It was nice knowing u! Lol
When all the world uses 911, why the hell we chose 112?
Only the USA uses 911. USA is not 'all the world'. Fun fact: 112 is more widely used than 911
112 is encoded in the GSM standard and can divert automatically to the local emergency number rather than just actually dial. As to the use of 112 internationally, all 28 member states of the EU have 112 either as their main or an additional emergency number, as does Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, Russia, Israel, ...
"Sorry operator, I just wanted to take a photo" - 99% of all emergency calls.
Nonsense gov mandate is nonsense. Forcing manufacturers to offer a product the market does not value has a really 5hitty track record.
Instead of Reducing Crime in Country Indian Government telling us to Panic.
btw how much Cost of this Panic button? is it affect the Price of Device? :)
security of everyone !!
not just women or men !!
Instead of Reducing Crime in Country Indian Government telling us to Panic.
btw how much Cost of this Panic button? is it affect the Price of Device? :)
Sounds ok but it will have many problems. People touch the button accidentally very often. Eventually they may cancel it.
For people saying it is easier to call 112, if it turn to be worldwide it will be good because every country has his own emergency number, in Brazil it is 190. For tourists they use the emergency button and the networks call the respective number for any country.
Finally a universal emergency dial in number for India. Good step...
I guess the pic is from Hyderabad. Harish, do you stay in Hyderabad?
Makes one wonder why the Indian government specified US made GPS as the standard that has to be implemented. Why not just say satelite navigation in general and let the manufacturers pick?
Some implementations of GPS by some countries do not include the Satellites that cover India, that's why.
Funnily enough, we have our own gps known as the IRNSS which covers a lot of south asia. The only thing is that it still is in the process of being implemented. (Final satellite launches on thursday).
General public in india refer to satelite navigation as GPS even though it may be supporting any technology namely GLONASS or US based GPS. I am sure that in this case, IRNSS will be used once it is succesfully deployed this year. But still people will prefer to call it GPS only.
Only India, they won't fix the train system which have people running across the tracks to catch a train...killing 100s of people per year but a f**king panic button is mandatory!
That is the job of railway minister and not communications and IT minister. And btw, can't more than one steps be taken for fighting crime simultaneously? Do you even have time to get knowledge about what is being done to tackle the problems which you think aren't being looked upon? You probably watch videos on YT uploaded a decade ago. Moreover, those people risk their own lives. But women don't ask men to rape them. Both are totally different cases. So please don't talk about what someone should do before knowing the priorities and importance of the decisions. Why not take a look at what needs to be done to tackle issues in your own country?
Hey, at least those train chasers can now push a button and yell, "Help! I'm about to be hit by a trai..." (thwack!)
Well, on second thought, that probably won't help.
Such a terrible idea. There will be so many false positives.
So in India one man has this kind of power? That's the big takeaway from this article in my mind.
Maybe do something about the indian rape gangs instead of trying to pass it off on phone manufactures.
yeah, since you can't do both, right?
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
go fr IRNSS compulsory instead of gps
Do Indians trust police? If I remember correctly there has been plenty of cases where the police are doing the raping themselves..
Yes, we trust our police. And no, there has not been a single case of on-duty policemen raping women, let alone plenty of them. How about having some brain boosting tonic? In fact when I search for such news online, most cases are from the west itself. The stupid questions the 911 personnel ask callers wasting crucial time is known worldwide.
I'm from India. I definitely know of cases where the police have done the raping. All countries have their black sheep.
For example? Please do note that I've said "on-duty". And, if you do find one then keep in mind he has said "plenty".
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/cops-gang-rape-woman-inside-police-s...
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/up-2-cops-rape-minor-at-police-stati...
Remember...Deepak said 'single'...he doesn't want multiple documented cases (in 1 month) mind you...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/18/2-los-ange...
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/21/us/oklahoma-city-officer-daniel-holtzc...
The cases you have posted are 1 and 2 years old respectively while the ones which I have posted are just a few months old. So, such cases are less prevalent in India. What was so unique in your comment that you thought of posting it? Just to offend some Indian in the comment section of an article related to India? That's what trolls do.
India do has serious rape issues and this article was partly about that. You just wanted one example of police being responsible. I gave a few. Take care.
I am sorry, but that claim is completely baseless. Yet another example of stereotyping India.
Couldn't you just have Cortana active to help with this:
"Cortana I'm being raped!"
Cortana - "Did you say you were eating grapes?"
"Noo, I'm being raped"
Cortana - "Oh, I shall alert authorities right away"
---
Camera and Windows (start) buttons held down for a bit might work.
LOL
Is it available in India?
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
I wonder who will be responible for 112-calls made by your pocket.
How exactly does one stop accidental emergency calls if you only have to click it 3 times? Give it to a toddler and watch the chaos unfold, lol.
It will probably go world-wide because of this. Think about it. When California passed a law that all phones sold in California must have reset protection built-in after a certain date, manufacturers, inclucing Microsoft, made it available world-wide. It's too much trouble to make a phone different for just one region, so they give it to everyone.
The same will happen here, and probably during the "out-of-the-box" experience, your selected region will "program in" the appropriate number to call when activating the panic mode. It's coming. Most manufacturers will opt to do a firmware revision causing the triple press of the power button to make the call, and give the phone a place to store the number that is to be called.
I just hope it will be made smart enough to "change numbers" when you roam to a new region if necessary.
When in India
Wow India, welcome to 1937...
-Mach 8 Solutions, LLC a software company.
Http://mach8solutions.com
*76
-Mach 8 Solutions, LLC a software company.
Http://mach8solutions.com
Hope those phones would be IRNSS-compatible as I've read that GPS uses some old standard while IRNSS will be using a new one.
Wow nice but 1 jan 2017 is a way long.. By that time ill be completing my engineering... Gud indicative.. Hope they really apply it.. -.-
It actually is quite short for that major change. Essentially you are not allowed to sell any non GPS phones. And what does it cover .. smartphones or featurephones as well? Does it cover landline phones as well if they are portable.
Why not a simple "Call 112" tile?
Because you will have to unlock the phone and find the tile, by then, it might be too late!
It could always replace the Camera launch button on the lock screen for Windows Phones. There could be a general option there to customise that button, but in India it could be locked to Call 112 without showing the PIN Entry
Yeah, no. People who buy phones in India shouldn't be forced to lose software functionality (that would almost be like the silly carrier customizations you see in Android). I feel that the country variant firmware could be used for the functionality (triple press power button) and Apple is likely to implement that as they do not like to fragment the OS experience (and for good reason).
What would be ideal (though unlikely to be achieved) is that there's an international standard for emergency services, which makes your phone truly country-agnostic.
112 is the standard in the EU and lots of other countries. In countries like Australia where is isn't standardised, it still forwards you to the emergency services. It's mainly in north America where 112 isn't standardised.
In any case, if all phones were to implement this it could surely be part of the initial setup where you tell the phone which region you're in, then the dedicated emergency number is chosen and assigned to the panic button.
I was just thinking that with GPS, the phone should be able to look up the appropriate emergency number from a reference list stored locally on the phone. So I'm India, it'd call 112, in the US, it'd call 911, in South Africa, it'd call 10111, etc. Having a consistent agreed upon sequence across all phones (power button the times in quick succession seems like a good option), anyone could pick up any phone and know how to reach emergency services without knowing how to navigate a specific lock screen on a specific OS or have to know the magic number wherever you happen to be. This would be especially helpful for travelers.
Posted from Windows Central for Windows 10
What if someone wanted do disable gps?
Can often still still use the cell phone network to determine country of origin.
Also, that would be considered accepting responsibility for your actions.
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
My 640 doesn't have a camera button and I miss it. Especially when I only have a moment to catch a particular shot.
But they are allowed to program a number key in the dialer, that would take more steps to access than compared to accessing a live tile.
Well this will probably be there, but such a button or option allows one to call for help discreetly as opposed to having to dial manually. Also this may be useful if the battery is low, or when someone has been in an accident and to dial for help is difficult
Posted from Windows Central App
Windows 10/Mobile, L830
Don't worry it will be extended to 2018 then 2019 and so on... till 2025 or 2030. I saw these things somany times in my life...
I don't think so.... Until those opposition craps again oppose in this KIND public help decisions. And I think GPS feature madatory is very very gr8 change
Wow that's pretty extreme and putting the onus right onto the manufacturers.
Does it have to be a physical button or could it be an on screen button on the lock screen.
Most phones don't have a dedicated button for this, so I guess the power button will be the preference for most companies, since it doesn't need a different chassis specifically for India.
Do Apple sell many iPhones in India? I suppose they will implement this on their power button if so, but it means changes in the OS to listen for that command.
Almost seems an odd thing to incorporate, just unlock the phone and call 112....
If you read the article it says you could use say the power button multiple times!
I know (I referenced that in my comment saying companies will probably go for that option), but the OS will probably need to listen for that sequence natively. Not a problem for companies to implement but still something they'll need to do for India specifically.
well, luckily for us all, that should be then easy to make a feature for all other countries, unless it somehow negatively impacts performance.
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Ooooor, they could just add the feature for everyone. Just because it's not law in most countries doesn't mean it's a bad idea. Of course, they could also easily make it so in countries where it's not law, the feature could be turned off. We see a similar option for the camera noise. In countries where phone cameras must make a noise, the option isn't there to turn it off, but in other countries, the option can be turned on/off.
Lol the l929 I imported guess they have to have CB message support for emergency alerts or something
India is very good market for mobile phones, windows phones has a large market share in india itself. N yeah that idiotic iphone sold here...
Try it and you'll know it's not idiotic.
They have a 2% market share in India. Hardly "large."
Long pressing the physical power button will switch off the phone so there must some other way.
I think the article says it will be pressing the button 3 times quickly, so that should be okay as long as people don't lock unlock and then lock their phones again very quickly.
This is an opportunity for Microsoft to take the Indian market by the scruff of the neck!
Dont think so.. Cuz most of d people don't even know what OS is actually. They hardly know what actually android is..
Not possible. Majority of mass consist of the people know nothing and people who don't care about this stuff. I don't think now even 'Nokia' name would help. That boat has sailed. People see my 730 and ask me if it's a Chinese fake phone.
Here android people cry for good specs phone and buy , apple is bought because it is the name apple here .!! And when we are bored of both we look onto windows phone though the interest of people soared as compared to earlier because of laggy android in low segment .!! Many people possess windows phone but android is high due to dirt cheap priced android available to inaccessible rural areas and many more markets here!!!!
That's what I'm saying. Apple has the brand name in big cities. Nokia had brand name everywhere. When Nokia made Windows phones, an average customer who didn't know anything used to buy a Lumia just because of name 'Nokia'. Now Nokia has vanished from smartphone markets so Microsoft has no chance. Now when people see my Lumia 730 in almost new-like condition they ask me if it's a knock-off with Nokia logo. Even though it's a Nokia product people find it hard to believe (at least here in small cities and rural areas). And people confuse my 640's 'Microsoft' branding with 'Micromax' and asked if it's knock-off of a Micromax phone. Yeah, Micromax is more popular.
Btw Nokia was again shopping in France and bought very nice consumer electronics maker this time around.
In 2018 MS will announce that this feature will be "coming soon".
Modifying india!
Mandatory built in gps...let the conspiracies begin!
All phones already have gps so what conspiracies?
#TeamLumia 950 XL
Nope.
Incorrect, all smartphones probably have it but not all basic feature phones do.
You clearly don't understand sarcasm.
Of course! Human control at its best.
Next will be CoPrtana with "hey, Cop!".
More amusing is the three presses on the power button thing. In the UK we have a similar system, we press the button 9 three times. I'm a bit concerned that India feel that dialing 112 might be a bit too confusing for some people. Sounds like Microsoft logic there. Oh well, I suppose everyone is different...
I also like the way that from 2018 if you can't afford a feature phone with GPS you can't have a phone. Nice and safe...
Or may be because 3 presses on the power button can be done even when the phone is locked and even with out looking at it. Do u 'Brits' know to dial even before you get to the dial pad ??? Or to dial 999 on a glass screen by just reaching into your pocket or bag without taking out the phone. "3 presses on the power button" can be done like that. So u see its just about your lack of logic... dont make ur fellow countrymen look bad i have respect for them.. just say you did not understand it.
And so you can't work out how to dial the emergency number without unlocking your phone? Good grief, perhaps this extra system is necessary then. At least for you.
Press the power button or double tap the screen > dial the 3 digit emergency number looking at the screen since its glass and u cannot feel the buttons like in old feature phones or may be a single press somewhere on the lock screen.... but even that takes looking
VS
Feel for the power button even if the phone is in the pocket or bag and quick perss it thrice ... no taking it out.. no looking at the screen...
and hey if u insist dial 112 and speak to an agent... but panic button is more that.. just one action to alert the authorities.
I made a mistake of saying you need to unlock the phone to dial emergency...I admit it... Its ok to admit that you understood something wrong... May be you dint think that way and now u see how its better... and if still dont then call me what ever and go home happy.. i can take that...
Only difference is you have to first unlock your phone and launch the dialer before pressing 9 three times.
And you too? Really? Why unlock it first?
I see what you're saying. If your phone requires a pin (or whatever) to unlock then there is an emergency call option. However, even with that you have to first swipe up, then press the emergency call button, then dial the number.
Anyway, I get your point that it's not much more time consuming than pressing a button three times, although in a panic situation it could be an issue.
Andy, the UK has 112 also. Its an EU directive. 999 or same number emergency dialling is an issue if something pressing on a single button causes a false dial to the emergency services. Common sense really, no broken logic at all.
there is rape culture in India, this panic button is designed for women.
That's really bad
Oh please, rape isn't a culture. Don't make it look more worse than it already is.
... I'm not sure that's possible.
Oh c'mon it's not like there is a designated street for that purpose, it's a country likely to become a superpower by 2030, give it some respect.
Well if the government forces to have a dedicated emergency button on all phones for the security of women...
Given their 800 year head start, why?
INDIA is way below in Rape no's when compared to Western countries, Arab's.... atleast in INDIA victims can file cases, but in Arab's no use
There are more rape happening in USA and Eurpoe on average(check out US government stats) . It is better India people make it a big issue because it is a big issue.
US and Eurupe ignore them.
That's a pretty dodgy conclusion given completely different reporting rates for this crime. At least in the US, a woman who is raped does not become unmarriable. India is not alone in having this problem, but lets just applaud their efforts to try and do something about it.
That said, a decision like this by the government is going to turn out rather badly. It's not trivial to change the hardware calls in a powered down computer, let alone an extremely cheap one, which is the majority of phones sold in India. I see a cluster cluck coming.
any idea what you are saying???
I don't think so. I never saw on tv about 100 mans raping and killing a baby like it happened in India.
You vace phones but you live in a 3rd world country, that s it.
You actually are a virus, not just your DP.
Check UN's crime reports and then talk about rape culture. India is among the countries with lowest rape per capita rate. Even if you double the rate it doesn't come near to rate of rape in USA & UK. Yes, India is socially backward but this rape culture thing is 100% media created.
UN Surveys on crime trends - unodc.org
United States reports highest number of rape cases per year..84K+
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#Rape_statistics_by_country
http://www.wonderslist.com/10-countries-highest-rape-crime/
India has some HUGE problems..
Lol sounds as archaic as that rule for cdma operators to require that(FCC policy guess they determined @ the time only gsm is accurate)