India's 911-like emergency number '112' to go live from January 1, 2017

Last month, Indian government mandated a panic button on all cell phones sold in the country from January 2017. There were also reports of India getting a '911' like emergency number next year. Today, Indian telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has approved the provision for the emergency number.

The single emergency number 112 will be operational from January 1 2017, and will let people reach immediate emergency services of the police, ambulance and fire department.

All the existing emergency numbers including police (100), fire department (101), ambulance (102) and Emergency Disaster Management (108), will be phased out within a year of rolling out 112 emergency number, depending on the awareness about the new service.

The service can also be accessible by people even if their SIMs and land lines outgoing call facility have been stopped or temporarily suspended. Users will also be able to make communication through SMS, and the callers location will be shared with the nearest help center.

The emergency service calls will be supported via a call center like facility, which will have representatives speaking in English, Hindi and local language.

Besides panic button and 112 emergency number, in-built GPS would also be mandatory for all devices with effect from January 2018.

Via