Chief Operating Officer Express Industry Council of India (EICI)

Drones are exciting developments and have the potential to be used in last-mile delivery. As restricted city access issues come to the fore due to environmental and traffic issues, products like drones could provide an alternative to delivery by road. These could also be used for delivery in rural areas where there are infrastructure constraints. The right cost would be a major driver for popularising use of drones. However, the biggest constraint would be regulatory challenges like security concerns. The government should put in the right regulatory framework to realise the opportunities offered by technologies like these. Express industry has always been a user of innovative technology. The large express companies already had intra global emailing systems in place as early as in the 1980s, both for communication as well as for track and trace. Similarly, express companies have been in the forefront in using technologies like GPS-enabled hand-held scanners, RFID etc.