Drone incubation fund in govt’s line of sight

To promote indigenous manufacturing for agriculture, health care, and infrastructure

India is planning to form an incubation fund for the drone industry to make the country self-reliant in drone manufacturing. The move comes in the wake of India’s push to decrease Chinese imports after a military offensive in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.

Currently, drones or components manufactured by China form the backbone of India’s drone industry. DJI Drones, a Chinese company, has near monopoly in the domestic drone industry.

“The fund being conceptualised by NITI Aayog will aim at bridging the gap between academia and industry, so that the entire ecosystem of drone manufacturing improves in scale and size,” said a government official.

Christened DISHA (Drone for Infra Security Health and Agriculture), the fund will aim at giving financial support to Indian dronemakers and researchers to manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles, primarily for civilian use.

“Anyone with an idea and concept will be able to get support from the fund if the idea has potential for commercial use,” the official added.

Sources said the requirement of such a fund was made after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took note of the successful application of drones against a swarm of locusts which threatened to damage kharif crops.

Modi on Saturday announced a mobile application innovation challenge to improve the Indian app manufacturing ecosystem, which is currently sensing an opportunity after the government banned 59 Chinese applications last week.

The Aayog — the policymaking arm of the government — has identified the development of an unmanned aerial system as one of the focus areas in its vision document.

Sources said that Ministry of Civil Aviation, which will launch the initiative, will approach public sector banks to manage the fund.

“The idea of the fund is to make it easier for various drone start-up incubators to access funding. The government is also partnering premier universities to find new solutions in drone technology,” the official said.

Big corporates have already evinced interest in investing in this space, with Reliance Group recently pumping in ~23 crore to pick up 51 per cent stake in Asteria Aerospace — a drone technology company with manufacturing capabilities.

K Senthil Kumar, director of Abdul Kalam Advanced UAV Research Centre at Anna University in Chennai, said funding and simplification of rules will make a business case to encourage corporates to invest.

Senthil’s team at Daksha, the incubation centre at Anna University, manufactured a motor-powered drone being extensively used in the fight against locusts.

An official at the Ministry of Agriculture said the need of a motor-powered drone was felt after there was shortage of batteries.

“During the locust operations, we faced challenges when Chinese imports slowed due to heightened vigilance by Customs. China controls the semiconductor and battery manufacturing, which is integral to making a drone. Then we approached Senthil for this motor-powered drone,” the official said. In 2012, Senthil’s team, which had freshly joined Anna University as faculty, had won an annual contest organised by the US military.

“We were offered a fund of $100,000, but we had to give away our concept to the US military,” said Senthil. He declined the offer, but says if there were such funding opportunities in India, the country would have beaten China to become the drone capital.

“Rules need to be simplified to encourage big companies to invest. TVS Motor Company is willing to mass manufacture motors for drones, but multiple approvals required for drone operations deter the business, discouraging such investments,” added Senthil.

The Drone Federation of India, a recently formed lobby group of drone manufacturers, said there is a need for the government to promote research in the sector. “To encourage development of technology, authorised persons may use testing areas for conducting research, testing, and development of electronics,” the federation said in its suggestions to the government.

The federation was formed in 2017 and now counts India Inc biggies like the Adanis and Tatas among its members, along with over 2,000 start-ups.