IG Drones in talks with Kerala govt to train, create drone workforce for Gulf nations
Delhi-based IG Drones, an endto-end done solutions firm, is in discussions with the Kerala Government to train and create a drone workforce that can work in the Gulf countries, particularly the agriculture sector. “The Kerala Government is very proactive (in creating the workforce through training). We can also create inhouse workforce who will work within the country and analyse drone data. It will be like the 80 per cent satellite image analysis business outsourced to India from the US and Europe,” said IG Drones founder and CEO Bodhisattwa Sanghapriya.
Analysing drone or agricultural data could be a huge business like the satellite imagery analysis business. “With drone data analysis, we can create a large data processing workforce in the country,” Sanghapriya said, adding that IG drones is eyeing these opportunities. Besides Kerala, Andhra Pradesh,
Odisha and Gujarat are proactive in the upskilling of youth, students and farmers in drone technology.
TRAINING FARMERS
IG Drones, which produced its first drone within days of being launched in 2018 in view of the founders’ experience in building rockets, has trained about 10,000 farmers with the latest drone technology.
In particular, the agriculture drone industry can emerge as a key sector for India in outsourcing drone operations and for data analysis of agricultural lands, he told businessline in an online interaction. “Just like Infosys and TCS have done in the BPO sector, I think the drone sector can also play a role in that direction by creating a workforce to operate drones. We can actually go to all African countries, West Asian countries and even to Europe. We can actually export our skilled workforce (in drones) there,” Sanghapriya said.
There is a huge shortage of drone pilots and the recent introduction of the Drone Didi scheme will only increase the problem. However, companies such as IG Drones have identified the manpower shortage problem and are trying to create a workforce like the IT majors. The company has entered into partnerships with National Skill Development Corporation, FICCI and other such organisations, including skill development councils, to train people in operating drones. The drone company has emerged as one of the largest skill development firms, particularly in upskilling and reskilling in drone technology.
“We have an ambitious plan of upskilling 10 million youth with the latest drone technology. We have started experimenting with di erent kinds of students in drone technology,” he said. IG Drones, which has o±ces in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Mumbai besides Delhi, has identified students of industrial training institutes (ITI) as more suitable for training in drone technology. It has trained 5,000 ITI students so far and rolled out a course for them with the results being “impressive”.
Just like Infosys and TCS have done in the BPO sector, the drone sector can play a role in that direction by creating a workforce to operate drones
BODHISATTWA SANGHAPRIYA
CEO, IG DRONES