homeaviation NewsDrone PLI Scheme’s aim is to give impetus to drone manufacturing, says Civil Aviation Secretary
Drone PLI Scheme’s aim is to give impetus to drone manufacturing, says Civil Aviation Secretary
As per the drones PLI scheme, the government has set aside a budget of Rs 120 crore to be spent over the next three years.
The new drone policy has created a congenial atmosphere for companies with the government's focus on giving an impetus to manufacture and develop drones in India, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said on Friday.
As per the drones PLI scheme, the government has set aside a budget of Rs 120 crore to be spent over the next three years.
In a conversation with CNBC-TV18, Kharola expressed confidence that drones could be a game-changer across several industries and said that the PLI follows the announcement of the new drone policy.
The new drone policy was announced on August 25 in the form of new drone rules. The policy has created a very congenial atmosphere for the research, design, development, and use of drones, he said, adding that there has been a paradigm shift in the sense that the entire policy is based on trust. “Secondly, it's based on self-regulation. Thirdly, it is based on automatic approvals,” he said.
So a drone manufacturer, a drone designer, and a drone user can easily take up all these activities in a very system-friendly manner as all this would be done on an electronic platform called the Digital sky. On this platform, the entire map of the country will be put and on this map, various zones and restrictions will also be pointed, he explained. The Civil Aviation Secretary also highlighted mentioned that most of the country has been marked in the green zone and any user can fly a drone in the green zone without any prior permission.
“All this will give a very good impetus for the manufacturing, development, and use of drones, he said. He, however, added that India is in a very infant stage as far as the manufacture of drones is concerned and a large number of drones, which are seen today, are important. Therefore, it becomes necessary to provide incentive to drones manufacturers within the country, he said, explaining why the new PLI policy for drones has been announced.
Kharola said, according to the policy, it has been stipulated that any drone manufacturer would get a production link incentive (PLI) and the quantum of the incentive is that one gets 20 percent of the value-added as an incentive, so that much cash money one gets back. He explained, that as a result, the cost of production comes down, and the drone manufacturer becomes more competitive visa-a-visa the imported drones.
Therefore, the result of this policy would be that with the current allocation of about Rs 120 crore, a large number of drone manufacturers would become competitive, and more and more people would take to drone manufacturing, he said, adding that once this happens, widespread use of drones throughout the country would come through.
Drones would become a major engine for economic growth and they would be a game-changer, Kharola said. Pointing to drones’ uses, he said, the fields in which they can be used are limitless, be it the mining industry, agriculture, survey, or providing title documents, all such activities can be done and a common man stands to benefit by a large scale with the use of drones.
When asked when the Digital Sky platform would go live and how many drone companies have submitted their interest in that, Kharola said it is a mandate given under the rules that within 30 days, the platform has to go live and the 30 days would expire on September 24.
“We are under a legal mandate to make it operational by 24th of this month. Once the Digital Sky platform goes live, all our maps would become live. Not only that, all the application processes and the permissions and the registrations, the manufacturers, the users and the developers and designers, all that can be done on the Digital Sky platform,” he said.
However, giving a specific number at this stage is difficult but a large number of people have evinced interest and once the system goes live, a good number of registrations is expected on the Digital Sky platform, he added.
For the full interview, watch the video
(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)
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