Airports Authority of India (AAI), under Ministry of Civil Aviation, New Delhi and Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Science signed an Memorandum of Understanding for the development of Integrated Message Generation System for GAGAN Message Service (GAMES) for utilization of GAGAN service in non-aviation sector on 23rd August 2017 by Member, Air Navigation Services, AAI and Dr. Shenoi, Director, INCOS at GAGAN Complex Bengaluru.
Dr. Shenoi, Director, INCOIS stated that INCOIS, an autonomous body under Ministry of Earth Science (MoES), Govt. of India has mission to provide ocean information and advisory services including Tsunami Alerts/warnings, Ocean State Forecasts (OSF), Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisories to a wide spectrum of users such as fishermen, scientific community, Government, maritime industries and coastal population. INCOIS is presently using conventional terrestrial communication methods for dissemination of alert/early warning messages but the reach is limited. GAMES will be a boon to overcome the problem of last mile reach, since the messages can be received directly either on a hand-held receiver or on mobiles for users in deep sea, as well.
Mr. A.K. Dutta, Member, Air Navigation Services, AAI in his keynote address said that GAMES is a very important service through GAGAN. He stated that there is a very large demand for messaging service for fishing & forming communities in India and GAMES would be able to meet most of these requirements. GAMES when implemented will make India the first country to broadcast messages through a Satellite Based Augmentation System. It will be capable of broadcasting of alert/ early warning messages through GAGAN. GAMES is proposed to be realized in two phases, viz, the demonstration or proto-type phase and the operational phase of broadcasting alert messages within the GAGAN Message Protocol. The decoding of the messages is planned to be done through APPS on hand held receivers and mobiles.