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Risks to Women Spur Mobile-Phone Panic Button Rule in India

  • Handsets will also have to offer satellite-based location
  • Communications minister says technology can improve security
A woman talks on a mobile phone in Mumbai, India, on Feb. 28, 2015.

A woman talks on a mobile phone in Mumbai, India, on Feb. 28, 2015.

Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
Updated on

Mobile phones in India must include a panic-button from the start of next year and satellite-based location technology from 2018, as officials try to make the nation safer for women.

The emergency feature would be activated by pressing a designated key on a smartphone or holding down the numbers ‘5’ or ‘9’ on a basic device, according to a statement from the telecommunications ministry in New Delhi late Monday. All manufacturers, including companies such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., would need to comply.