Ministry of Civil Aviation in India conducted the first-ever Drone Mahotsav on the May 27-28, 2022. We remember our first ever interaction with Radha Mohan Singh a couple of years ago when we found ourselves explaining to him the advantages of using drones in the agriculture sector. He immediately called for all the agricultural secretaries of the state at the Ministry of Agriculture. This was nearly seven years ago.
Here we are, seven years down the road, looking at India poised to become one of the leaders in drone applications across all areas of human life. I have said this earlier, and I say it again, “Drones will touch our lives in more ways than one in the times to come”.
The peaceful application of drones is much more than what the world has known drones for, till now – that drone attacks are carried out by many countries, including the United States of America in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Drone Mahotsav saw the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi flying the drone with ease. He handled the drone as if he’s been flying it all along. While his motor skills are praiseworthy, it’s also important to note that drones these days are made relatively easy to handle. Most drones have flight modes like altitude hold, position hold (where it holds the position in three dimensions using accelerometers and global positioning sensors), waypoint navigation, return to launch, and smart return to launch mode in which the drone comes back home the way it reached wherever it reached. This mode is beneficial when we recall the drone flying in a valley where you don’t want it to come back in a straight line, you want the drone to follow the path it took to reach where it did when the return to launch was activated. These autopilot modes are much more advanced than any autopilot mode that even a sophisticated fighter jet may have.
The Drone Mahotsav also saw some companies unveiling their new drones to take on the commercial market of existing drones predominantly made in China. The most ubiquitous one is the DJI phantom drone which you see flying everywhere. Indian drones will have a GSM-based tracker, which would allow drones to be always tracked. The requirement of such a tracker is to know where the legitimate drone is so that the illegitimate ones could be brought down quickly.
Also Read: How India Can Make The Most of The Drone Revolution And Beat China As A Global Leader
Last year, we saw drone policies being liberalised, which gave a significant fillip to the drone industry. So much so that the Indian drone policy has become a benchmark for the world, including for the United States of America, which is slowly realising the potential of commercial drone application in the areas that it did not think of in the past. The Prime Minister of India conveyed an important message. Most people wanted to portray drones as something sinister, but some sane voices convinced the country’s policymakers that drones could touch your lives in areas that are hard to access, in areas where speed is the key.
We have been saying this for many years, knocking on many doors and baptising many ministries and industries towards the great potential of drones. What we need to do further is what has been captured beautifully at this Drone Mahotsav.
Also Read: Airport to Home in 10 Minutes in an ‘Uberdrone’: How Drones Will Change the Game
Preparation for this Drone Mahotsav started long ago. It had to be cancelled last time due to unforeseen reasons, including global reasons like the Ukraine-Russia war. This time around, organising the Drone Mahotsav at Pragati Maidan added more oomph to the whole event. Many industries participated, including allied industries that support the drone industry.
As a parting shot, we had the opportunity to speak at one of the panels on skill development — an area very close to our heart. Being a drone master trainer, we had the chance to teach many children in our country about flying drones, including some specially-abled children. This is something that we are going to upscale to include as many children as possible in skilling them to fly drones. Because India, in times to come, would need many drone pilots, not to mention the increasing demand for drone pilots globally. The children we have taught would probably go on to become great drone pilots in some corner of the world. Some of our pupils are already flying in Dubai and other parts of the world.
Group Capt MJ Augustine Vinod VSM (retd) tweets at @mjavinod and Squadron Leader Varsha Kukreti (retd) tweets at @varshakukreti. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the stand of this publciation.
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