Aviation ministry releases list of beneficiaries under PLI scheme for drone manufacturers

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Wednesday released the first provisional list of 14 beneficiaries under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for manufacturers of drone and drone components. These include five drone manufacturers and nine drone component manufacturers.

The ministry had invited applications from eligible manufacturers on March 10, 2022 and the last date for submission was March 31 2022.

The final list of PLI beneficiaries is expected to be released by June 30, 2022 after detailed scrutiny of their financial results and other specified documents.

The eligibility criteria for the PLI scheme for drones and drone components includes an annual sales turnover of Rs 2 crore for drone companies and Rs 50 lakh for drone components manufacturers; and value addition of over 40 per cent of sales turnover.

The PLI scheme for drones and drone components was notified on September 30 2021.

Under the scheme, a total incentive of Rs 120 crore is spread over three financial year which is nearly double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21. The PLI rate is 20 per cent of the value addition which is one of the highest among other PLI scheme. A unique feature of drone PLI scheme is that the manufacturers who fail to meet the value addition threshold in 2021-22 will be allowed to claim the lost incentive in the subsequent year if they make up the shortfall in 2022-23.

The provisional list of PLI beneficiaries has been prepared on the basis of the financial data submitted by applicants for the ten-month period – April 2021 till January 2022.  

Apart from the PLI Scheme, Government of India has carried series of reforms to make India a global drone hub by 2030. This includes notification of the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021; publishing of Drone Airspace Map 2021, which opens nearly 90 per cent of Indian airspace as a green zone up to 400 feet; UAS Traffic Management (UTM) policy framework 2021; Drone Certification Scheme 2022, which makes it easier for drone manufacturers to obtain a type certificate; Drone Import Policy, 2022, which bans import of foreign-made drones; and the Drone (Amendment) Rules, 2022, which abolishes the requirement of a drone pilot licence for drone operations.

The shortlisted drone manufacturers are Dhaksha Unmanned Systems, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Ideaforge Technology, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Io TechWorld Avigation, Gurugram, Haryana, Omnipresent Robot Technologies, Gurguram, Haryana, Raphe Mphibr, Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

The list of shortlisted drone components manufacturers includes Absolute Composites, Bangalore, Karnataka, Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India, Hyderabad, and Telangana.