Come March, long press 9 on your mobile phones when in distress

Finally, the government has taken note that most of the people in India do not possess smartphones and cannot download apps to send distress messages to the police.

In a bid to alert the police during distress, the PM Narendra Modi-led government is going to roll out a panic alert facility. Under this, a long press on 9 will send an immediate alert to the police and near and dear ones.

Once this facility is rolled out, volume buttons will also be used as distress messages in future.

Once pressed, the alert will provide location information of the person in distress.

The facility is a brainchild of Women & Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

Also, an upgrade will be rolled out by the telecom operators for existing handsets.

Reportedly, Department of Telecommunications will send a formal order to service providers to offer the software upgrade on all existing phones.