Drone Technology & Indian Start-ups

India is a country where entrepreneurship is always admired, appreciated, and encouraged. There are numerous types of business ideas that are flourishing in India today, one of the most promising ones being drone technology. Indian Startups are slowly getting into drone technology. Drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a powerful technology that can be used for various purposes. In drone technology, India is witnessing a new wave of innovation with a boom in the number of startups. Drone technology and startups are helping solve several real-world problems like high utility bills and poor security by bringing innovative solutions using drones. Indian startups have found a way to make deliveries more efficient using drone technology.

Commercial drones are unmanned aircrafts that are typically owned by corporations, universities, or entrepreneurs, and they have been making waves in a variety of industries. This new field brings together and expands upon many existing technologies in the fields of: Computer Vision, Advanced and Small CPU’s & GPU’s, specialized sensors, LiDAR, and manufacturing techniques. The field is heavily influenced by smart phones as well as tablet computers and hence able to leverage their availability in a mass market. Drone technology has caught up to our imagination, in a big way.

Drone technology has a wide range of application from monitoring coastal areas to agricultural purposes to defense applications. Drones can capture the aerial images, motion sensor data, and storing it for analysis may be used for effective crop management, disease control or patrolling on borders. A drone is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard. Instead, the UAV is either controlled by someone on the ground or autonomously via a computer program. The soaring popularity of drone technology is helping Indian startups create new businesses that range from aerial photography to crop monitoring, warehouse management and surveillance.

Drone startups and research has been around for several years now. The Indian startup ecosystem has already started to see some of these startups emerging. Once there is approval from DGCA for commercial applications for e-commerce companies, deliveries and for the on-demand food delivery services, drones will provide a new way to execute their logistics, however the current legislation aren’t quite updated to cater to this technology yet. Startup companies in drone technology began to raise funds and gain recognition, while demand continued to surge. Revenue from business-to-business applications of drone technology is expected to grow more than fourfold over the next decade as the usage of drones expands across industries.

More than 500 startups in India are racing to use drone technology to solve problems like helping farmers monitor crops, inspecting power lines and bridges for companies, providing connectivity to rural areas and monitoring construction sites. The MoD also has started a new scheme or government grant for drone companies to collaborate with foreign technology companies such as companies from Israel etc who are working on drone propulsion, anti drone technology and drone monitoring. This joint venture will receive aid both from the Indian and Israeli government as part of a new treaty between the governments.

Following the draft rules on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (“UAS”/ “Drones”) that were released for public comments by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (“MoCA”) in June 2020 (“Draft UAS Rules”) the MoCA has now notified the final Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021 (“UAS Rules”). This paves the way for the new drone law in India.

Applicability Unlike the Earlier Guidelines whose applicability was limited only to the India territory, the applicability of the UAS Rules has been extended to all UAS registered in India, even when they are operating outside Indian territory. Further, its provisions would also apply to all persons seeking to own or possess, or seeking to engage in importing, exporting, manufacturing, trading, leasing, operating, transferring, or maintaining a UAS in India. Categorization and Classification of UAS While the Earlier Guidelines were limited to Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (“RPAS”) alone, the UAS Rules go on to categorize UAS into aeroplane, rotorcraft and hybrid unmanned aircraft system.

These categories are further sub-categorized as the following:
1. RPAS (i.e., UAS piloted from a remote pilot station)
2. Model RPAS (i.e., UAS operating without payload and used for educational purposes only within visual line of sight)
3. Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft System (i.e., UAS that does not require pilot intervention in the management of the flight)

So, to say the least disruptive tech like drone technology is making headlines almost every day. The developmental potential of drones has brought several billion dollars to invest in startups engaged in the drone-tech business. Government Scheme Make Drones in India: The Government notified a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Indian drone manufacturers on 30 September 2021. The scheme seeks to promote a competitive and self-sustaining drone manufacturing industry in India under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. The scheme comes shortly after the announcement of the Drone Rules 2021 which encourages drone operations in India by improving ease-of-doing business and simplifying compliance for the drone industry.

The future of the drone industry The scheme will serve as significant encouragement for investment in the drone sector and for the creation of new Indian startups catering to the industry. The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, hopes to make India a global drone hub by 2030 with an expected turnover of INR 15,000 Crores by 2026. The PLI scheme, in combination with the Drone Rules 2021 is expected to galvanize the Indian drone industry to achieve these objectives. The liberalized Drone Rules and the PLI scheme is already having a positive effect on the drone industry. Indian drone manufacturers claim that their sales have grown 3-5 times in the last year and that they plan to add several employees to their teams.

Foreign drone component manufacturers are also contemplating setting up in India to avail of the benefits of the PLI scheme. This will create a self-sufficient drone manufacturing ecosystem in India, with manufacturers of drones no longer requiring the import of foreign components. The PLI scheme is an effective way of augmenting indigenous manufacturing of drones and drone components. It incentivizes foreign manufacturers to set up operations in India as well and creates employment opportunities in the sector. Alongside the Drone Rules 2021, the scheme is likely to enable growth for the drone industry.

All this points to a large requirement of drone related technology manufacturers who will be catering to demand from defense and commercial sectors. The time is ripe for these companies and having a good expert to guide you on the entire gamut of selection and setup of the manufacturing companies will help the entrepreneurs to get benefit from the right government schemes and also choose the right product that will be in the sunrise sector for next 10-15 years. We at SolutionBuggy can help the entrepreneurs as we have more than 10000+ experts across domains and have executed more than 170 projects in the Aerospace and Defense sector.