The new #DroneRules were announced in August 2021. Efforts are on to make India a global drone hub by 2030. By 2025, India is anticipated to be the world's third-largest drone market. The industry has seen a funding boost of $87 million in the last year. As more sectors use drones, 10 startups received funding, double from last year. Companies such as ideaForge raised $20 million, and the ePlane Company raised $5 million.

Recently, a diagnostics company Redcliffe Labs started operating commercial drones for delivering medicines. The company’s founder was quoted saying, “Uttarkashi to Dehradun by road is 144 km, 6-8 hours by road and 12 hours during a landslide. But using drone technology this distance was covered in 88 minutes with one battery swap in between.”

The newly listed Paras Defence, via its subsidiary Paras Aerospace, has tied up with a few unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV manufacturers in Israel, Latvia, & Italy. In other instances, Aster DM Healthcare has entered into a partnership with Skye Air Mobility, a drone-based logistics firm, for the delivery of diagnostic samples and medicines.

Previously, Zomato acquired TechEagle, a Lucknow-based drone startup, helping the online delivery platform to create a hub-to-hub delivery network powered by hybrid multi-rotor drones. Similarly, Info Edge (India) has made investments in Bengaluru-based Skylark Drones.

Today, Indian Billionaires including Reliance invested into Asteria, Adani invested into General Aeronautics and at the same time Tata Advanced Systems has already invested with Boeing to jointly produce drones. They've understood the multiple use cases of drones and want a piece of the pie.

Take the mining sector, for instance. These companies are spending heavily to equip themselves with drones for regular business operations. Then there are oil exploration companies like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which plan to use drones to monitor pipelines f.