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Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said  the Indian drone industry will have a total turnover of up to Rs 15,000 crore by 2026 as the government has given a major boost to the sector with the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme announced and liberalised rules implemented last month. The Civil Aviation Ministry approved a PLI scheme for drones and drone components with an allocation of Rs 120 crore spread over three financial years.

The PLI scheme comes as a follow-through of the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021, released by the Centre on August 25. Scindia said ‘With Drone Policy (Rules) and Drone PLI scheme, we have an aim that drone manufacturing companies in India should reach a turnover of Rs 900 crore in the coming three years.’

He mentioned, currently, Indian drone manufacturing companies have a turnover of approximately Rs 80 crore. He said the three parts of the entire value chain in the drone sector are hardware (drone manufacturer), software and service delivery. He sated ‘If you combine turnover of all three parts of the drone sector, it is our estimate that by 2026, it will stand at USD 1.8 billion. This means that this industry will have a turnover of approximately Rs 12,000-Rs 15,000 crore by then.’