Bangalore/New Delhi: The Indian drone industry has had a strong year in terms of funding in 2022. This was boosted by favorable government policies, increasing use cases and the first listings of companies in the sector. Still, drone adoption in the country remains low, partly due to rising equipment and training costs.
Domestic drone startups raised $39.1 million in equity funding in 2022, according to data from researcher Tracxn. That’s more than double him compared to his $17.5 million in 2021. The 2020 base is $9.2 million. The number of funding rounds remained relatively flat at 21 in 2022 versus 23 in 2021, but higher than 11 in 2020. By comparison, the drone sector’s global funding has increased slightly to $3 billion in 2022. A 7.1% increase from $2.8 billion in 2021. Funding growth a year ago more than doubled from $1.1 billion in 2020.
The Indian government has made a concerted attempt to encourage the drone industry, last year introducing a dedicated drone policy with a focus on local manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, logistics, defense, and e-commerce. . In February 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced her Drone Shakti, a mission to make the country a hub for drones by 2030.
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Late last year, Dronecharya Aerial Innovations became the first public drone company in India. The startup is working on drone pilot training for mining, agriculture, oil and gas, and other sectors.Following a funded initial public offering ¥At $340 million, the company’s shares went public at a 90% premium when it debuted and has climbed ever since.
According to federal policy think tank NITI Aayog, India’s UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) market is expected to grow to $50 billion over the next 15 years, with drones expected to replace 80% of the work currently done by manned aircraft. .
Drone startups are driving increased adoption. On December 6, Garuda Aerospace, a homegrown drone manufacturing and operations start-up based in Chennai, is the first of 1,000 drone Centers of Excellence (CoEs) planned to acquire drone skills across India. announced the In an interview, chief executive officer Agnishwar Jayaprakash said Garuda Aerospace will set up these centers within the next three months and next year he will train 100,000 drone pilots. big growth in the future. For example, Dana Hisnah, who obtained his certification as a drone pilot from the Remote His Pilot His Training His Organization (RTPO) earlier this year, said despite spending: ¥Earning $65,000 in a five-day course, she needed to diversify her career beyond being a drone operator.
Nar, who runs an avid drone training institute called Drone School India, says the cost of drones and the lack of commercial drone projects available is one of the main reasons for the shortage of jobs. . Most of those roles aren’t full-time and are very rare and irregular in nature,” she said.
Karan Kamdar, CEO of Mumbai-based drone maker 1 Martian Way and president of the Indian Drone Racing League, said home-grown drones are better than international-standard drones like those made by Chinese drone maker DJI. He said it could be twice as expensive.
He added that India only allows domestically produced drones with a unique identification number (UIN), so the cost of Indian-made drones could affect adoption.
EY technology partner Akshay Singhal estimates that it will take “another 18 months” for widespread adoption of drones in India.
According to EY-FICCI’s recent report ‘Making India the Drone Hub of the World’, the drone and its components industry will significantly boost India’s manufacturing potential to around $23 billion by 2030. I can. To make India the world’s drone hub by 2030, it needs strong demand, boosting manufacturing, attracting investment and boosting exports, offering the most competitive and innovative manufacturing capacity, report says added.
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