India will need 100,000 drone pilots in coming years: Scindia
No college degrees needed to train as pilot; dozen ministries looking to boost demand for drone services
Atotal of 12 central ministries are trying to boost the indigenous demand for drone services and India will need approximately 100,000 drone pilots in the coming years, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday.
“We are taking the drone sector forward on three wheels. The first wheel is of policy. You have seen how fast we are implementing the policy,” Scindia said at a Niti Aayog event here.
The second wheel ‘is to create incentives, he said.
“The PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme, which has been implemented under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, will give a fresh boost to manufacturing and services in the drone sector,” the minister added.
The PLI scheme was introduced in September 2021 as a follow-through of the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021 released by the ministry on August 25 last year.
Scindia said the third wheel is to create indigenous demand and the 12 ministries have tried to create that demand.
Today, someone who has passed the Class-12 exam can be trained as a drone pilot and no college degrees are required for it, he pointed out.
“With two-three months of training, this person is in his or her job as a drone pilot with a monthly salary of around Rs30,000,” the minister said.
“We need close to 100,000 drone pilots in the years to come. So the opportunity is tremendous,” he added.
Scindia had, on September 16 last year, said the Indian drone industry will see a turnover of up to Rs150 billion by 2026.
The first batch of applications for the PLI scheme was invited on March 10 and the results were announced on April 20, wherein Adani Group’s joint venture company with Israeli firm Elbit, Ideaforge Technology, and 12 other drone companies were selected as the beneficiaries.
The civil aviation ministry invited the second batch of applications for the scheme on May 5. — pti