Revolutionizing Drone business

When drones first emerged in the market, they were strictly used for military purposes. But it's high time now that we accept the fact that drones are making a stellar contribution across different industries and not just defence. 'Uttarakhand becomes first Indian state to roll out drones in healthcare'. 'Himachal Pradesh approves drone policy to create a holistic ecosystem and boost employment'. 'Swiggy starts deliveries via drones as norms relax', are some of the leading news headlines. As you can see, the war zone is not the only place where drones play a pivotal role.

The new Drone Rules were announced in August 2021. Efforts are on to make India a global drone hub by 2030. By 2025, India is anticipated to be the world's third-largest drone market. The industry has seen a funding boost of $87 million in the last year. As more sectors use drones, 10 startups received funding, double from last year. Companies such as ideaForge raised $20 million, and the ePlane Company raised $5 million.

Recently, a diagnostics company Redcliffe Labs started operating commercial drones for delivering medicines. The company’s founder was quoted saying, “Uttarkashi to Dehradun by road is 144 km, 6-8 hours by road and 12 hours during a landslide. But using drone technology this distance was covered in 88 minutes with one battery swap in between.”

The newly listed Paras Defence, via its subsidiary Paras Aerospace, has tied up with a few unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV manufacturers in Israel, Latvia, & Italy. In other instances, Aster DM Healthcare has entered into a partnership with Skye Air Mobility, a drone-based logistics firm, for the delivery of diagnostic samples and medicines.

Previously, Zomato acquired TechEagle, a Lucknow-based drone startup, helping the online delivery platform to create a hub-to-hub delivery network powered by hybrid multi-rotor drones. Similarly, Info Edge (India) has made investments in Bengaluru-based Skylark Drones.

Today, Indian Billionaires including Reliance invested into Asteria, Adani invested into General Aeronautics and at the same time Tata Advanced Systems has already invested with Boeing to jointly produce drones. They've understood the multiple use cases of drones and want a piece of the pie.

Take the mining sector, for instance. These companies are spending heavily to equip themselves with drones for regular business operations. Then there are oil exploration companies like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which plan to use drones to monitor pipelines for safe operations.

There are agriculture companies like Dhanuka Agritech making large investments to promote the use of drone technology in the agriculture sector to boost crop production. Logistics companies can't rule out drones as they help deliver essentials including vaccines from one place to another in a short span. Drones also help telecom companies maintain telecom towers and survey potential new tower locations.

Today, drones are used in various industries...for delivering small items to conducting inspection, to monitoring crops, you name it…. and drones can take up the task. All new age technology disruption brings a challenge in some way or the other, Cross-border drones continue to be a big challenge for BSF.

The Border Security Force and border range police have stepped up the vigil to prevent any cross-border misadventure, especially dropping of arms and drugs using drones. Going forward, the opportunity to come out on how to retaliate the drone from entering the unauthorised territories.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA