AKIPRESS.COM - India has launched the seventh and final satellite to create its own satellite-navigation system, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the system would be known as Navigation with Indian Constellation, or NAVIC. Once it is operational, the country will join the ranks of the U.S., Russia, China and Europe, which all have their own systems.

The system – previously called the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System – was designed to provide accurate position information to users in India and as far as 1,500 kilometers from its borders.

The satellites will be able to track the location and position of vehicles, provide information during natural disasters and integrated with mobile phones for navigation and other location services.

It will provide two kinds of services: one which is open source and another which is restricted and strongly encrypted, provided only to “authorized users,” according to Indian Space Research Organization.

Modi watched the launch of the satellite from the ISRO office in New Delhi and congratulated its scientists.

“With this successful launch, we will determine our own paths powered by our technology. This is a great gift to people from scientists,” Modi said.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee said the launch of the satellite was “an important landmark in our space program with India now joining the small group of nations having their own regional satellite navigation system.” He said the launch “demonstrates, yet again, India’s growing capabilities in space launch technology.”

Russia has its operational global satellite navigation system called Glonass, while the European Union has its Galileo system. China plans to have its own global satellite-navigation system, Beidou, working by 2020.

India has been gaining recognition worldwide as a low-cost option for sending satellites into orbit. In 2014, it put a satellite into the orbit of Mars, becoming the first country in Asia to reach the red planet.

India’s Space Minister Jitendra Singh said that the country also plans to launch a communications satellite that will provide enhanced bandwidth connectivity to rural areas. The satellite will be launched toward the end of 2016 or the first quarter of 2017, he said.

The ISRO’s rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV, also carried five satellites from the U.K..The space agency said it was the thirty-fourth consecutive successful mission for the PSLV.

ISRO plans to launch 22 satellites in another flight of PSLV including 19 satellites from four countries: 13 from the U.S., three from Germany, two from Canada and one from Indonesia, Singh said in Parliament.