HYDERABAD: While the State government smoothens out the wrinkles in its pioneering drone-based developmental programmes, experts weigh in on the advantages of the technology and plausible challenges in its execution. Mehernoush Dittia, the founder of Indian Drone Academy, Hyderabad, firmly believes that speed and accuracy of drone technology makes it perfect for medical and agricultural development.
“The minimal turnaround time with drones will be a blessing for people living in remote or rural areas for medical help in times of emergency or crisis. The accessibility of drones beat any other form of human logistics. A drone’s ability to monitor crowd in situations of crisis when visual and auditory feeds are cut down, is commendable especially when human lives are at risk. India is already way behind western countries in terms of handling crisis situations,” he said, adding that the investment in drone tech is comparatively low, with a majority of it required to acquire the hardware.
In an effort to strengthen the process of drones providing medical equipment, Prem Kumar, founder of Marut Drones, the company that has partnered with GHMC for eradication of mosquitoes, opined, “Innovative packaging solutions and temperature-controlled ground and air transport need to be introduced to maintain the required temperature ranges at all points during the transit.”
“Special handling services like blood, cardiac medicine, first aid for individual customer requirements through a public-private partnership between State government and private emergency medical services are in the pipeline,” he added. However, arguing on the flipside, Dittia said that the security aspect of drone technology will remain a challenge for both the State and DGCA.