Beyond Sight: The Economic Impact of Drones: How Aerial Mobility is Shaping India’s Future

By Satyabrata Satpathy

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Drones are the next big leap in tech innovation. They are touted to have a potentially transformative impact on industry akin to the Internet and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Drones that harness the power of 5G mobile connectivity and real-time data analytics will lead India towards Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Drones as Drives of Economic Drones

Drones are remotely operated aircraft that can either be operated by a pilot within his/her visual line of sight or function autonomously beyond the visual line of sight of any operator. Economic potential of drones is estimated to be worth INR 1.8 lakh crore ($23 billion) by 2030, contributing to India’s GDP and global market share.

1. Real World Applications

They enable precision spraying, crop health monitoring, land record digitization, surveillance, disaster management and infrastructure inspection. In mining, drones can perform volumetric analysis and aid stockpile management. Drones can also be useful fire- fighting devices and carry fire retardants as payloads. Across the energy and shipping industries, drones ensure safer asset maintenance and faster inspections. Such diverse use cases indicate the broad applicability of drones across India’s key sectors.

2. Boosting India’s Growth

Drones can boost India’s economic growth like the IT revolution of the 1990s. Just as IT services enabled cost efficiency, improved data management and enabled global service exports, drones can deliver similar advantages in manufacturing, agriculture, logistics and beyond. Drones equipped with advanced sensors, and 5G mobile connectivity with edge computing capabilities can unlock real-time data processing with myriad benefits.

In Agriculture, using drones leads to 10x faster monitoring and up to 75% cost reduction in operations such as spraying fertilizers and crop protection
In Infrastructure development, drones speed up construction monitoring by 80% and oﬀer savings of up to 40% in survey costs

An evolving and enabling regulatory landscape, liberalized drone policies and government- support such as the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and the Drone Shakti policy are poised to boost domestic manufacturing, attracting investment in the sector and increasing exports.

India needs to harness its strengths in software, tech innovation and IT to become a major player in the international drone market. Analysts project the drone market to grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 80% until 2025.

Growth in the drone industry will also lead to a ‘trickle-down’ eﬀect, impacting allied industries like components, sensors and AI-based services which will further boost domestic manufacturing and employment.

Pathway to a Drone-driven Future

There needs to be a multi-stakeholder eﬀort to bring about the UAV Revolution in India. The government, industry, academia and research institutions need to come together and work in synergy to make this happen. The government on its part, must continue with its proactive regulation and provide industry support by simplifying rules, creating dedicated drone corridors and expanding the PLI scheme to cover critical subcomponents of drones such as sensors, autopilot systems and communication modules. Regulatory sandboxes are needed to create an ecosystem for the safe testing of drones and the development of drone air traffic management systems.

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are needed to pool resources, tap into expertise and facilitate investments. Government and industry need to work in sync in order to localize manufacturing, enhance R&D spends and build export capacity. The aim should be to capture 25% of the global drone market by 2030.

The Indian workforce needs significant skill development and the government should incentivize this eﬀort. Specializing training programs, drone pilot marketplaces and academic drone Centers of Excellence (CoEs) are the need of the hour.

Promotion of the localization of manufacturing is critical for reducing import dependence. A Drone Industry Research Assistance Council (DIRAC) has been mooted by industry to accelerate indigenous innovation by funding worthy startups, bridging R&D gaps and provide support in commercializing innovations. Lastly, proactive international collaboration on standards and best practices will ensure India is aligned with global trends in the drone industry and will help enable technology adoption and export growth.

Addressing Challenges with Strategic Policy Actions

The drone industry in India currently faces several challenges that require targeted policy interventions. Drones rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) and data-intensive applications which make them vulnerable to hacking. Cybersecurity risks are a key concern that need to be addressed by secure communication protocols and adequate encryption standards. The successful scaling drone operations are often hindered by bandwidth limitations for high-speed data transfers. This necessitates robust broadband infrastructure and upgrading our 5G network infrastructure.

India as of today is heavily reliant on imports of some high-value components used in drones such as sensors, chips and LiDAR/RADAR systems. Such dependency slows down localization and increases costs. This can be overcome with government policies that incentive domestic R&D and subsequent manufacturing of such critical components.

The industry today is looking for regulatory clarity from the government in certain areas. Simplified Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) regulations, a National Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management (UTM) policy and ﬂexible airspace management are priorities to ensure safe management of drone traffic. Proactive and innovative regulation is required so that Indian industry does not always have to play catch up with the rest of the world. Building automated drone traffic management systems are essential to manage large-scale drone operations safely and efficiently.

Conclusion

India’s aspiration to be a global drone hub by 2030 requires proactive and supportive regulations, incentives for innovation and a collaborative ecosystem. A focused multi- stakeholder eﬀort as outlined above and strategic policy interventions by the government are the need of the hour. This will ensure that drones significantly enhance India’s growth across sectors, unlock economic potential and drive national prosperity.