On December 6, 2022, the Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, inaugurated India’s first Drone Skilling and Training Virtual E-Learning Platform in Chennai, Tamil Nadu (TN).
- He also flagged off Garuda Aerospace Private Limited’s Drone Yatra at Agni College of Technology in Thalambur, TN, ‘Operation 777’ which envisages to educate and demonstrate the efficacy of drones for different agricultural uses across 777 districts in India.
Key Points:
i.Drone Yatra will help farmers understand more about the technology and give them a better perspective on growing crops.
ii.Garuda Aerospace’s plan to make one lakh ‘Made in India’ drones by 2024 with a dual objective of empowering farmers and creating employment for Indian youth.
- The Indian drone market is expected to reach USD 5 billion in 2024.
iii.India will require at least 1 lakh drone pilots in 2023, and each pilot will earn at least 50-80 thousand a month.
iv.On February 11, 2022, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MocA) removed the drone pilot license requirement for operating drones in India. A Remote Pilot Certificate (RPC) issued by DGCA is adequate to man a drone.
v.The Central Government is boosting the drone technology through three pronged approach viz. Drone Rules, 2021; providing incentive in the form of PLI (Production Linked incentive) for Drones and Drone Components; and creating indigenous demand wherein 12 Ministries of the Central government have been given the task to take it forward.
Usage of Drones:
i.As a part of the SWAMITVA scheme (Survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas), the survey of the land and houses are being prepared through drones in the villages.
ii.Drones are being used to sprinkle pesticides and nano fertilizers in the fields in rural villages.
iii.Recently, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had granted conditional exemption to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the deployment of drones for live aerial cinematography of the India Cricket Season in 2021.
Meghalaya Govt unveils Asia’s first Drone Delivery Hub
The Meghalaya government in partnership with startup TechEagle has unveiled Meghalaya Drone Delivery Network (MDDN) and hub which is Asia’s first drone delivery hub and network aimed at providing universal access to healthcare for 2.7 million people of Meghalaya.
- The Jengjal Sub Divisional Hospital, which will act as the hub.
- The first official drone flight took off from Jengjal Sub Divisional Hospital (Hub) and delivered medicines to Padeldoba by TechEagle’s Vertiplane X3 Drone in less than 30 mins which would have otherwise taken 2.5 hours by road.
Key Points:
i.Delivering vital supplies like drugs, diagnostic samples, vaccines, blood and blood components quickly and safely to different regions of the state
ii.It will overcomes the problem of lack of visibility, high delivery costs, outdated technology and inaccessibility through roads and railway networks.
Recent Related News:
i.Garuda Aerospace Private Limited, Drone as a Service(DaaS) company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, Karnataka for collaborative research projects for a Period of two years.
ii.TechEagle, carried out the world’s first vaccine delivery for animal husbandry in Arunachal Pradesh using its indigenously developed Hybrid Drone- the Vertiplane X3, which delivered vaccines 12 times faster than ground transportation.
About Garuda Aerospace Private Limited
CEO – Agnishwar Jayaprakash
Headquarters – Chennai,Tamilnadu
About Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS):
Union Minister – Anurag Singh Thakur (Constituency- Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh)
Minister of State (MoS)– Nisith Pramanik (Constituency- Coochbehar, West Bengal)
