Drone Shakti: Tech Easing the Policies

Technological advancements have been instrumental in the progress of humanity in multiple ways be it wars or businesses. It is also a major catalyst in the ways policies are framed or amended. Innovation has been a part of life since humanity exists and as it evolves, our idea of life, our needs and wants, pattern and lifestyle, everything shifts or transforms.

One major innovation we are talking about here is drones. Though it is not at all a recent invention, the way it is being used, its availability and purpose has definitely seen a new dawn in India recently. In August 2021, the Civil Aviation Ministry revised the Drone Rules and liberalized it with incentives, along with a complete ban on import of drones and similar easing measures which can be looked up in their documents. During the budget speech in February, 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that drone start-ups would be encouraged as India steps up the commercial use of drones in different industries as part of its Drone Shakti or power initiative.

The curious question is how did we get there? What made us ban imports and gain confidence in our manufacturing, procurement and quality. When we watched the movie URI, and the drone ‘garuda’ in it built by an intern, it surely fascinated most of us and made us think if we really can get these kinds of drones in the military. Well, we do have similar drones used by the Indian Army, built by some passionate innovators who are on a mission to serve the country with the best skills they have. These inventors+entrepreneurs have made it possible for the government to frame new policies around high-tech equipment to be used for civilian purposes as well as military purposes. The journey was indeed difficult, however the innovators proved that the only way you can change the world or help improvise the system is through your passion and hard work, there is no short-cut for that. It was due to these tech-geeks that manufacturing quality drones indigenously became possible and the government was convinced that this is the right time to push for indigenous technology and re-visit the old-fashioned regulations that earlier restricted these manufacturers on multiple levels.

In this blog, we proudly want to introduce you to such an innovator, Ankit Mehta, founder of ideaForge and his co-founders Ashish Bhatt, Rahul Singh and Vipul Joshi. One of our incubatees, ideaForge is a manufacturer of India’s one of the largest drone companies. An IIT Bombay graduate, Mehta was strongly convinced about his drone technology during the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, on which he was working along with his co-founders. That was the take-off point for one of India’s pioneering drone start-ups, after almost a decade they have over 20 patents now. Mehat has recently completed a $20million with the Indian Army, providing them SWITCH UAV drones for high-altitude surveillance along the Chinese borders. His conversation with ET on this development can be found here to understand more about drones, usage and economics around it.

However, the usage of drones is not just for defense purposes as per the recent amendments, and there are ample ways it is going to transform the country’s growth. The sectors where these Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) would be used include agriculture, healthcare, mining and so on. An instance of how it is going to be helpful is – drones can spray pesticides on a 2.5 acre of agricultural land during 15 minutes flight; another is, for geospatial mapping drones are 10x better than satellite images at the same cost providing much better resolution.

With about 200 startups in the drone ecosystem of India, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said “We’re going to ensure drone application in transportation, logistics, defense, mining, infrastructure sectors, and more. It will provide more jobs. Our aim is to make India a global drone hub by 2030.”

The entrepreneurial journey of our innovators have made them a seasoned expert in their areas; as Mehta was a panel in a discussion on ‘Making India a Global Drone Hub by 2030’, we could not be more glad to witness and be a part of a journey where tech-startups & entrepreneurship which was considered a sideways career option/ risky and ambiguous, is making government amend policies around their products and services providing India much hope for further technological advancements. The days are not far when startups are going to be a part of multi-track diplomacy.