Drone industry turnover may reach ₹15k cr by 2026: Scindia
HT Correspondent
NEW DELHI: India is home to 270 startups in the drone technologies business and the industry is projected to achieve a turnover of over ₹15,000 crore by 2026, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Friday during the launch of the Bharat Drone Mahotsav, 2022.
The event was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and both the leaders hailed the new technology as offering a significant opportunity for welfare measures and last-mile delivery of services, in addition to bringing with it big economic opportunities.
“Drone is the idea whose time has come in India,” Scindia said, adding: “Though drones fly up in the sky, they reach every interior village of the country,” he added.
The aviation minister, who unveiled a liberalised drone policy weeks after taking over last year, said it was part of the government and prime minister’s larger vision. “According to the prime minister, technology is only successful when it is able to help the needy and improve their living,” Scindia said.
The benefits extend to various areas, he added, illustrating how “a 5kg drone can help forces maintain security as well as assist farmers in preventing pests and insects that attack their crops by spraying”.
“We brought new drone rules in August last year and released a drone space map within a month. This mapping was done to segregate drone zones that resemble restricted areas for drone movement (red zone), limited area for drone flying (yellow zone) and free area for operating drones in a limitless manner (green zone). After coordinating with every state and union territory, we released this map where 70% of the green area has been identified and mapped”, Scindia explained.
“Today there are 270 drone start-ups in India. We are ahead of many of the countries,” he added.
India on February 9 barred import of foreign drones to encourage the domestic industry.
When it unveiled the new rules in August last year, the government also extended a productionlinked incentive (PLI) scheme for drone manufacturing and introduced a single-window Digitalsky platform to help manufacturers as well as end-users.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA), in April this year, released the first provisional list of 14 beneficiaries under the PLI scheme for drone and drone components. The first list of PLI beneficiaries is expected to be released by June 30.