Drone strengthens the eye scale, quality in the race to the sky

They added that most homegrown companies innovate even when faced with challenges such as achieving scale and reducing component imports.

“The industry is on a fast growth path. Overall, we need to keep up with demand and we need to ensure that we create the right quality that will allow users to deploy the system in various environmental conditions in our country,” said Ankit Mehta, co-founder and CEO. drone manufacturer ideaForge.

Mumbai-based ideaForge is the second drone firm to file for an initial public offering, besides DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations Ltd, backed by major investor Shankar Sharma. Backed by Qualcomm, Infosys and Florintree Capital Partners, ideaForge expects demand to continue thanks to the government’s drive to make India the global drone hub by 2030, as well as the geopolitical situation.

Due to the growing demand from foreign countries, the company has already opened a subsidiary in the United States. “One of our strategies is to enter the international market and introduce our products. We have production in India. Gradually, this (manufacturing units abroad) will depend on the needs of global markets,” Mehta added.

The sector has recently benefited from a Ministry of Civil Aviation manufacturing-related incentive scheme for the drone sector. While initial costs for FY21-22 were ₹16 crores, government allocated ₹30 crores so far, and has approved 12 of the more than 50 companies that have submitted applications for registration under the scheme.

Of the total costs, around 60% was received by ideaForge alone, with the remainder split between Aarav Unmanned Systems, Sagar Defense Raphe mPhibir and Throttle Aerospace.

“Based on this, we will have a very large and high bid for the PLI scheme next year from the industry. Now that the number of drones in the airspace is increasing and drones need to fly alongside manned aircraft, it is necessary to think about managing drone traffic with a UTM (Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management) policy,” said Smith Shah, President of the United States Drone Federation. India.

According to industry estimates, there are around 60,000 drones operating in India, including 20,000-30,000 entertainment devices.

BotLab Dynamics is a leader in providing drones as an entertainment service. “There is a growing interest in such light shows with a swarm of drones. We have received requests from several countries and state governments,” said Sarita Ahlavat, co-founder of BotLab Dynamics.