India will become droine tech hub, need one lakh drone pilots by 2023 : Minister Anurag Thakur

Chennai, Dec 6 : India will become a hub of drone technology and the country will require at least one lakh drone pilots by next year, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur said on Tuesday. In his address after flagging off the ‘Drone Yatra 2.0’, in the city, he said technology is truly transforming the world at a rapid pace and it has never been more relevant than now as its applications are solving some of the most pressing problems on the planet.
“Prime Minister Modi once remarked that ‘India has a billion solutions to a million problems…As the country of a billion plus people, India is increasingly leveraging technology to stay ahead of the curve”, he said. Detailing the advancements in drone technology in India, he said during the Beating Retreat, the entire nation was mesmerised by the spectacular display of 1,000 ‘Made in India’ drones by Indian start-up ‘Botlab Dynamics’ led by an IIT alumni. As part of the SWAMITVA scheme (Survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas), the survey of the land and houses are being prepared through drones in the villages, he added.
Drones are increasingly being used to sprinkle pesticides and nano fertilizers in the fields in rural villages, Anurag Thakur said. He said recently, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had granted conditional exemption to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for deployment of drones for live aerial cinematography of the India Cricket Season in 2021.
Recalling as part of the “Kisan Drone Yatra”, inaugurated by the Prime Minister 100 Kisan Drones were sent to villages across the country to spray pesticides, the Minister quoted the PM’s remark that, “Kisan Drone is now the beginning of a new age revolution in this direction.”