Kisan Drones

• 21 Feb 2022

Why in News

On February 19, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the drone manufacturing facilities of Garuda Aerospace at Manesar and Chennai in Gurugram, Haryana.

Key Points

• Chennai-based Garuda Aerospace is a Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) company.
• The Prime Minister virtually inaugurated drone manufacturing facilities at two locations, resulting in the simultaneous launch of 100 farmer drones in 100 villages.
• These 100 drones launched agricultural spraying campaigns under the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' in 16 different states to celebrate 75 years of independence.
• Technology and innovation have been given priority in this year's budget announcements and the use of farmer drones in various sectors has been mentioned.
• Garuda Aerospace has leased space to manufacture drones from Defsys Solutions in Gurugram. The Defsys Solutions facility is equipped with advanced design and prototype testing capabilities.
• The 2.5-acre plant is a hub for drone software design, hardware structural testing, type certification and a capacity to manufacture 40 drones per day.
• Garuda's proposed Chennai plant is located on a 20-acre facility, with a capacity to produce 100 drones per day and 100,000 farmer drones are being planned over the next two years. The site is also a proposed RPTO (Remote Pilot Training) facility, intended to train aspiring drone pilots.
• Agneswar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO, Garuda Aerospace said, “Our drone features launched by the Prime Minister furthers Garuda’s vision of becoming India’s first drone unicorn startup. This startup will make six lakh drones and will deploy one drone in every Indian village by 2025.