In terms of technology, many countries around the world want to reduce their dependence on China. India is also making aggressive efforts in this direction. India's drone policy is one aspect of this effort. The Indian government is making aggressive efforts to promote the manufacture and protection of technological equipment. A glimpse of this was seen in the celebration of Republic Day this year, when around 1000 drones made in India light up the skies over the Raisina hills. Drones flying rhythmically in the evening were creating intricate artworks like a map of India and a picture of Mahatma Gandhi in the sky. It was not just a Republic Day celebration, it was also an attempt to show India's growing influence in technology, and drones were at its center. Adding to this, it should not be surprising to see a complete ban on India's foreign-made drones just 11 days after Republic Day. Government incentives for drones Till last year, India's stand on drones was not the same. Keeping a normal drone here was also not easy. But in the last months, the government has tried to not only simplify the rules of keeping it, by taking one step after the other, but has also done the work of promoting its use in all different ways. They are also being used for surveying the properties of people in villages under the PM Swamitva Yojana, such as the exemption of the use of drones in agricultural related works.
Recently, information was given by the government that land survey work has been done with this technology in more than 1 lakh villages. That is, about 17 percent of the villages of India have been measured with this technique so far. But the price is still a hurdle, although experts are not completely satisfied about the state of the drone ecosystem in India yet. Dr. Sarita Ahlawat, Drone Entrepreneur, says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of using drones like a common two-wheeler is not easy to fulfill. Ahlawat's startup Botlab Dynamics had designed the drones that would perform the feat on Republic Day. His startup works under the aegis of IIT Delhi. She is happy with the new efforts but says "the steps that have been taken should have been taken a few years back". It is said that Indian drones are still very expensive compared to imported Chinese drones. Therefore, drone ban, not parts, experts say that the reason for the cost of Indian-made drones is the lack of drone ecosystem in India. This is the reason why the government could ban drone imports, but drone parts can still be imported. The manufacturing of things like molding, micro controller, diode and register required to make a drone is negligible in India.
Apart from this, quality motors and lithium-ion batteries for good drones are also not manufactured in India. Due to this, drone manufacturers import these things from countries like China. To improve this situation, the central government had launched a production linked incentive scheme last year to make drones and its parts and recently announced an incentive of Rs 120 crore to drone manufacturers in the next three years. . The government expects an investment of 50 billion rupees in this sector in the next three years and by the year 2026, the drone sector will become a two billion dollar industry in India. An important issue from a security point of view as well, but the growing drone trade is not the only reason behind the ban on foreign drones. India also considers it a security issue. According to local media reports, this ban is also an attempt to keep Chinese drones out of Indian airspace. According to these reports, India also wanted to block dronemakers such as SZ DJI Technology, a world-renowned Chinese drone company, for security reasons as it is concerned that this company will share some of India's strategic information such as the status of bridges and dams with Chinese intelligence agencies. shares with. By the way, in the case of defense drones, India is still largely dependent on American, Israeli and Russian drones. These defense drones are made according to difficult conditions, which are capable of flying at high altitude in areas like Ladakh. They are equipped with good cameras and a good GPS system and can lift a weight of several kilos.
However, the manufacturing of defense drones is increasing rapidly in India as well. Indian experts consider it good according to intelligence requirements. Steps taken towards becoming a drone power Recently, the Indian company Idea Forge has made a deal of about 1.5 billion rupees with the Indian Army to make military drones. This company has already supplied thousands of drones to the army. The importance of the deal can be understood from the statement of the company's general manager Naveen Navlani, "This deal is the embodiment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's self-reliant India. Keeping an eagle-like eye on the areas, the army will be able to avoid incidents like Galwan". Reducing dependence on China on the one hand and strategic importance on the other. However, most experts believe that it will take five to ten years to build the necessary infrastructure and ecosystem for drone manufacturing in India. And now it will be necessary that the reforms and incentives started by the government should be implemented well. Till then the work of manufacturing drones in the country itself by importing cheap foreign parts would be a right direction.