Drone firms eye the scale, quality in the race for the skies

He said that most of the domestic companies are innovating though they are facing challenges like achieving scale and reducing import of components.

“The industry is on a high growth trajectory. Broadly speaking, we need to keep up with the demand and we need to ensure that we are manufacturing the right quality that will enable users to deploy systems in the diverse environmental conditions in our country. will allow us to do that,” said Ankit Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Drone. Manufacturer: IdeaForge.

Mumbai-based IdeaForge is the second drone firm to file for an initial public offering, apart from Drone Acharya Aerial Innovations Ltd, which is backed by veteran investor Shankar Sharma. Backed by Qualcomm, Infosys and Florintree Capital Partners, IdeaForge expects demand to continue on the back of the government’s push to make India a global hub for drones by 2030 and in view of the geopolitical situation.

With the growing demand from overseas, it has already set up a subsidiary in the US. “One of our strategies is to go to the international market and introduce our products. We have production facility in India. Progressively, it (production units abroad) will depend on the requirement of the global markets,” Mehta said.

Recently, the sector has benefited from the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Production Linked Incentive Scheme for the drone sector. While the initial outlay for FY21-22 was 16 crores, the government has distributed 30 crore so far, and have approved 12 of the more than 50 companies that have submitted applications for enrollment under the scheme.

Of the total outlay, around 60% was received by IdeaForge alone, while the remaining amount was shared by Aarav Unmanned Systems, Sea Defense Rafe mPhibir and Throttle Aerospace.

“Based on this, we will have a huge and tall claim on next year’s PLI scheme from the industry. Now, when the number of drones in the airspace is increasing and drones need to fly alongside manned aircraft, there is a need to think about drone traffic management through UTM (Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management) policy,” Smit Shah, President, Drone Federation of India.

According to industry estimates, there are around 60,000 drones operating in India, including 20,000-30,000 as recreational equipment.

Botlab Dynamics has been a pioneer in providing drones as a service for entertainment. “There is a growing interest in such drone swarm light shows. We have received inquiries from many countries and state governments,” said Sarita Ahlawat, co-founder of Botlab Dynamics.