On September 11, 2021, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ministry of Civil Aviation launched ‘Medicines from the Sky (MFTS)’ in Vikarabad district of Telangana to send medicines to primary healthcare centres using drones. With this Telangana became the first Indian state to use drones for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLoS) to deliver the payload.
- MFTS is an initiative of the Government of Telangana led by the emerging technologies wing of Telangana’s IT Department in association with World Economic Forum (WEF), NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog, and HealthNet Global (Apollo Hospitals).
- It should be noted that during the Wings 2020 event in Hyderabad, the Telangana government partnered with the WEF for the MFTS programme.
Maiden Delivery:
The first delivery was carried out by a Delhi-based drone delivery tech firm Skye Air Mobility for its Consortium partner Blue Dart Express. It delivered a 5-kg box of vaccines from Vikarabad District hospital to a community health centre which was three kilometres away in ten minutes.
How will it be useful?
Through this project, life-saving drugs, vaccines and blood could easily be transported to places in need, remote and rural areas by beating traffic and other hurdles.
Key Points:
i.Eight consortia are a part of the project. Three of the eight selected consortia are Bluedart Med Express Consortium (with Skye Air Mobility), Hepicopter Consortium (Marut Drones), and CurisFly Consortium (TechEagle Innovations).
- They have launched their test flights.
ii.This project is a result of liberalised new Drone Rules which have made it easier for entrepreneurs. Under this, the number of forms has been cut from 25 to 5. The types of fee have been reduced from 72 to 7.
iii.The Medicine from the Sky project would be ramped up in six other states in the next six to 12 months.
Recent Related News:
During the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), India’s nomination of Kakatiya Rudreswara Temple (also known as the Ramappa Temple) at Palampet, Mulugu district, Warangal, Telangana was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. It will be India’s 39th World Heritage Site & the 1st World Heritage Site from Telangana.
About Ministry of Civil Aviation:
Jyotiraditya Scindia Constituency– Madhya Pradesh
Minister of State (MoS)– General Vijay Kumar Singh (Retd.) (Constituency- Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh)
