'The defence forces have come up with certain problems they face in the drone space.'
'Recently we had a meeting at which they presented the problems to many of our start-ups and faculty.'
'Some of the start-ups have started working on the problems.'
According to the Israeli foreign trade administration, the Indian drone market is projected to grow from $654 million in 2024 to $1.437 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 17% during the period.
It further says that 'the Drone volume in the India drone market is projected to grow from 10,803 units in 2024 to 61,393 units by 2029.'
Israel, the US and China leads the world in drone technology.
The drone market in India is said to be one of the fastest growing markets because of the increase in demands in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure development, and, of course, defence.
IIT Kanpur is aiming to be the drone technology hub in India.
"The idea of making IIT Kanpur as the drone technology hub came from the fact that since we have all the facilities -- from design facility to testing facility -- needed for the technology to develop, we thought, why limit these facilities only to the people inside the institute, why not we set up a hub for national drone development?" Professor Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT Kanpur tells Rediff's Shobha Warrier.
How did IIT Kanpur become a hub in drone technology?
At IIT Kanpur, we have had an air strip in the campus right from the time the institution was established.
Along with that, a flight lab got developed.
So, we have been having our small aircraft for a long time. Then came the wind tunnels.
All these provide a natural platform for drone development.
That's why some faculty in the aerospace department took the lead to develop drones 15 years ago when drones were not a hot topic like it is today. They have been quite successful in that field.
The idea of making IIT Kanpur as the drone technology hub came from the fact that since we have all the facilities -- from design facility to testing facility -- needed for the technology to develop, we thought, why limit these facilities only to the people inside the institute, why not we set up a hub for national drone development?
We then submitted the proposal to the Government of India early this year.
In order to establish a national hub where we offer our facilities to anyone who is interested in developing the technology, we have to create a bigger set up with experts, more facilities, etc.
It is here that we are looking for support from the government. If the government supports us, we can scale it up to open up our facilities for a larger number of people.
So, your idea is to encourage more start-ups in the field of drone technology...
Yes. That's the idea. When we have the air strip, when we have the flight lab, all the testing of drone flying can be done where the start-ups are. They do not have to go anywhere else for testing.
Do you have any drone start-ups at the IIT campus right now?
Yes, we do have 10 drone start-ups which are incubated in our start- up incubator itself.
Once the hub starts functioning, we can easily have 50 to 100 start-ups in coming years.
Are they started by those within the campus alone, or do you let entrepreneurs from outside also set up start-ups there?
It is a combination. There are some start-ups by our faculty, some by our students and some from outside.
We have an expert screening panel that go through the ideas before supporting them in developing the ideas into entrepreneurial ventures.
What kind of support does IIT Kanpur offer to the start-ups?
One. We have an incubator within the campus and what we give is access to all the facilities the institute has like the flight lab, testing, etc.
Two. We provide an office space for the entrepreneurs to operate.
Three. We help them with all the paper work including the legal procedures in setting up an enterprise.
Four. We give them access to investors and mentors from outside.
Are these drone start-ups concentrating on any particular sector?
Different start ups have different sectors in mind. For example, there is a start-up that is focusing on surveillance with high quality cameras.
There is another start up, the AI enabled Kamikaze UAV2 drone, that focuses on advanced military operations like surveillance and self-detonation by carrying 2 kg of warheads. Kamikaze can carry explosives and hit the target. It explodes after hitting the target as it is not designed to come back.
Another start up concentrates on fairly lightweight drones so that their endurance is high. They can be used for long distance connections.
Sabal 20 drone developed by another start up is a logistics drone used by the Indian Army. It is capable of transporting a 20 kg payload to a range of 10 km in high altitude areas operating up to an altitude of 5,500 m.
These are some of the niche areas our start ups are focusing on.
It was reported that IIT Kanpur is collaborating with the defence forces. Is the collaboration with IIT Kanpur, or with some of the start-ups incubated there?
The defence forces have come up with certain problems they face in the drone space, and they have openly talked about these issues.
Recently we had a meeting in Delhi at which they presented the problems in front of many of our start-ups and faculty, and wanted them to let the forces know if they had the solutions.
After that, some of the start-ups have started working on the problems.
Let's see what they come up with.
When you talk about collaboration, it is like this. The defence forces are the users and we are the providers.
They said, when we develop the solutions, they would facilitate the testing wherever it is needed, whether it is high altitude or low altitude.
So, the start-ups can do the testing at defence facilities.
Now that you are planning a drone technology hub, which are the sectors do you see using the technology more? How big the drone market?
The drone market is probably is not very big right now, but it is growing very rapidly.
I would say, the drone market in India will be very huge in the next 5 years.
One sector I see growing tremendously is agriculture. Drones are going to be used a lot in this field. For example, drones can fly and identify the areas in the field where plants are not growing well and the reason behind it.
Once you identify the disease, they can have controlled spray of medication in that particular area instead of spraying the entire area.
There are lots of such opportunities in the agriculture sector.
Defence sector, of course is the biggest user of drones.
Then the health sector. For example, if you want to do an urgent blood test for a person who has fallen ill in an inaccessible area where blood testing facility is not available, you can send his blood via a drone to the nearest place where testing facility is there.
Also the delivery sector. When I say delivery sector, I mean any delivery especially in the regions which are not easily accessible like mountainous areas.
Where does India stand in drone technology globally?
Five years ago, we were quite behind the world.
We are still behind but we are catching up fast because lots of start-ups in the drone field are doing very interesting things.
In the drone design and manufacturing space, the countries that are leading are the US, China and Israel.
I am confident that in the next few years, we will actually catch up.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff