Drone industry turnover to shoot up from Rs 60 crore to Rs 900 crore: V K Singh

Singh said drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy like - agriculture, mining, medicine delivery, surveillance, search and rescue, transportation, mapping, defense, and law enforcement.

New Delhi: The estimated annual sales turnover of the drone industry in the country may grow from Rs. 60 crore in 2020-21 to about Rs.900 crore by 2024-25, Minister of State, Civil Aviation, General (retd) V K Singh informed Rajya Sabha on Monday. "With the implementation of the liberalized drone rules, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, and the drone import policy it is estimated that the annual sales turnover of the Indian drone manufacturing industry may grow from approximately INR 60 crore in 2020-21 to approximately INR 900 crore by 2024-25," stated Singh.

He further said that the Indian industry, startups, and academia are working closely to address technological gaps that may exist in different areas of drone usage. Singh said drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy like - agriculture, mining, medicine delivery, surveillance, search and rescue, transportation, mapping, defense, and law enforcement.

"The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) vide notification No. 54/2015-2020 dated 9th February 2022 prohibited import of drones is completely built-up (CBU), semi-knocked down (SKD) or completely knocked down (CKD) form, except for R&D, defense and security purposes," stated Singh. He also said that the prohibition of drones has been implemented in a phased manner.