There was a time when drones solely conjured an image of defensive countermeasures and surveillance for national security. Today, that picture has expanded substantially. While the use of drones/ unmanned aerial vehicles/ quadcoptors are still most prominent in the area of national defence, they are additionally being explored for commercial use and public benefit.

In India, there has been a lot of deliberation on permitting drones for commercial purpose. In 2018, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) introduced certain regulations to fly drones in India. Since then, the number of companies, especially startups, keen on developing UAV technologies has been on the rise. Data from Tracxn says there are over 130 drone startups in India. Inc42Labs data says there 50 operational drone startups in India. Despite sustained interest in this technology, the pace of growth has been comparatively slow.

The World Economic Forum (India chapter) is one of the handful of entities in India working towards enabling the use of drones for social good. The not-for-profit has already enabled demonstrations in Telangana and is working towards similar demos in Arunachal Pradesh in agriculture and healthcare, and hopes to recreate the success of drone projects overseas in India as well.

Vignesh Santhanam leads the Drones and Tomorrow’s Airspace initiative for the World Economic Forum (India chapter), and is all too aware of the apprehensions and resistance to largescale implementation of drones for commercial use. However, he believes a policy change can take place only by demonstrating results and benefits. This is the mantra of the WEForum, which has been working on a multitude of projects and pilots with several state governments for the past two years.

Santhanam says, “India’s next phase of growth in aerospace will stem from innovation especially for societal good. There are so many areas where drones can be deployed, but we are currently focusing on pilots in healthcare and agriculture.”

One of the most significant milestones in last mile delivery of medical essentials is the introduction of drones – they are fast and effectively address the criticality of transport of products such as organs, platelets and blood - Santhanam elucidates the example of the first ever drone delivery of a kidney, carried out by the University of Maryland. Drone deliveries have been hugely successful in African nations like Ghana and Rwanda, where terrain makes it very challenging and time consuming to navigate via road. Zipline drones have flown more than 1 million kilometres in Rwanda for more than 13,000 deliveries while outside the capital Kigali, drones now carry 35% of blood required for transfusion.

Here, in India, Medicine From The Sky – an initiative by the World Economic Forum, the government of Telangana and Apollo Hospitals – is playing a crucial role in medical deliveries in the remote areas within the region. The Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India and the government of Telangana also brought together the community to explore how drones could be used and deployed to support the national response to COVID19.

Santhanam emphasizes that AI and analytics will play a definitive role in making drones more valuable. “Fields like healthcare, agriculture and urban governance provide massive amounts of critical data, which can help make drone deployment more strategic and purposeful. We can deploy drones in difficult terrains to gather important data that would help with predictive modelling. This can be hugely beneficial, especially in disaster-prone areas.”

While the World Economic Forum has established firmly the utility of drones, the next step is to build a strong regulatory framework. As mentioned earlier, the DGCA issued Civil Aviation Requirements for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in India, in 2018. A year later, the aviation body went a step ahead with an invitation for collaboration on BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) drone technologies. Santhanam believes India’s approach, which is more consortium-based and involves a wide range of ecosystem players, could provide the much needed competitive advantage. The Drone Innovators Network – co-hosted by the Government of India and WEForums’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution India – was one such meeting where industry, government, policy makers and academia converged to explore a wide range of use of drones in India.

Santhanam adds, “This kind of change cannot happen overnight. We are aiming for long-term shift in thinking, and this requires mobilising the entire drone community in India. To our part, we are building a strong ecosystem with relevant stakeholders that constantly deliberate the different innovative and safe ways drones can be deployed for commercial purposes in India.”