'Make in India' startup to make 1,000 drones for agri sector

GARUDA Aerospace, a startup under the ‘Make in India’ campaign and India’s largest drone company, is manufacturing 1,000 drones for the agriculture sector that would be launched by prime minister Narendra Modi.

According to a report in Asian News International, the drones will help farmers optimise both farm productivity and profitability. The startup is also aiming to help the farmers to look beyond the manual spraying of pesticides, water and fertilizer on crops to save time, water and resources and boost agricultural productivity.

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“Our founder met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, presented him with our plan to manufacture 1000 drones next month. He (PM) agreed to launch the event...With the help of drones, we'll be able to save time, water, resources and get past manual spraying,” Ram Kumar, vice president of the Chennai-based Garuda Aerospace, said.

“Spraying through drones has many advantages first is spraying manually takes three to four hours to cover an acre but by using a drone, it’s just like 10 minutes. It reduces the water, pesticides used per acre,” he added.

Modi government issues new drone policy

Last week, Garuda Aerospace founder and chief executive officer Agnishwar Jayaprakash met Modi and said the Indian drone industry is set to skyrocket under the visionary leadership of the prime minister.

“I was astonished over how hands-on the Prime Minister is on drones. He was very keen to know the industry reaction to the recent drone policies changes to which I responded that we are firmly on the path to become the drone capital of the world, thanks to the government's progressive Make in India policies,” he told ANI.

Drones have received a wide attention in terms of policy perspective after India’s civil aviation ministry revised the drone laws 2021 recently. Several companies have taken initiative to capitalise on the momentum to achieve a positive change.