In a major development, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has released the first provisional list of 14 beneficiaries under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for drone and drone components. These include five drone manufacturers and nine drone component manufacturers.

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

Government of India has taken series of reforms to make India a global drone hub by 2030 

-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% of Indian airspace as a green zone upto 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. 

Provisional list of PLI beneficiaries

-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.  The shortlisted beneficiaries have crossed the eligibility criteria related to sales revenue and value addition in the ten month period itself. 

-The list of beneficiaries is likely to be expanded further since some more manufacturers are likely to exceed the eligibility criteria for the full financial year 2021-22.  The final list of PLI beneficiaries is expected to be released by 30th June 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 INR 2 crore for drone companies and INR 50 lacs for drone components manufacturers; and value addition of over 40% of sales turnover. 

-The PLI scheme for drones and drone components was notified on 30th September 2021. Under the scheme, a total incentive of INR 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% 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 list of shortlisted drone manufacturers is as follows: 

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 is as follows: 

Absolute Composites, Bangalore, Karnataka 

Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India, Hyderabad, Telangana 

Adroitec Information Systems, New Delhi 

Alpha Design Technologies, Bangalore, Karnataka 

Inventgrid India, Sambalpur. Odisha 

Paras Aerospace, Bangalore, Karnataka 

SASMOS HET Technologies, Bangalore, Karnataka 

ZMotion Autonomous Systems, Bangalore, Karnataka 

Zuppa Geo Navigation Technologies, Chennai, Tamil Nadu