Terrain-following flight, fail-safe redundancy, and night-operation capability are not common specifications for agricultural drones built for Indian field conditions. But they define NIKA2, the newly unveiled Kisan Medium Drone from AkinAnalytics, founded by Janaki Pulaparthi. Presented before Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently, the Hyderabad-based women-led DeepTech and Defence Technology startup pairs a 16-litre spraying payload with a 12-litre spreading payload, switchable through an easy payload-change mechanism that allows a single drone to perform multiple agricultural operations across a crop cycle. Its applications extend beyond conventional farming into aquaculture feed distribution and plantation environments with uneven, sloping terrain, where conventional aerial operations typically struggle. In an exclusive chat with CE, Janaki takes us through what led to the making of NIKA2, a drone that earns its keep across seasons, not just one.
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What specific gaps or challenges faced by farmers led you to build the NIKA2?
When a farmer invests close to Rs10 lakh in a drone, it should economically empower them rather than remain idle for much of the year. Agriculture is seasonal, so a spraying-only drone may have limited use beyond certain crop cycles. We studied how one platform could serve different activities across seasons and geographies. NIKA2 therefore became a multi-payload platform for spraying and spreading, including aquaculture feed distribution. Its terrain-following capability allows it to adapt to plantation environments such as tea estates in the Northeast. Multi-payload capability is both a technical and business feature: one investment should create sustainable revenue opportunities.
What kind of farm sizes, crops and operations is NIKA2 specifically
designed to serve?
NIKA2 is a Kisan medium agricultural drone designed for conventional farms, plantations and aquaculture environments. Its spraying and spreading configurations aim to reduce repetitive manual work and improve coverage. Under suitable conditions, our field objective is approximately three acres per sortie, though actual coverage depends on crop density, terrain, application rate, weather, battery condition and flight parameters. We therefore avoid presenting one productivity number as applicable to every farm or crop. Productivity is also about reducing chemical exposure, physical strain, labour constraints and difficult access. Three acres is therefore a field target under suitable conditions, not a universal claim.
What were the operational risks you wanted to address?
Agricultural drones operate in changing real-world conditions, including difficult terrain, changing visibility and communication interruptions. Safety and situational capability were important design considerations. Features supporting low-light or night operations can expand the operational window where regulations permit, while fail-safe functions provide additional protection during communication loss, changing weather or low battery. Technology alone cannot ensure safety. Pre-flight checks, battery discipline, weather assessment and standard operating procedures are equally important.
How did you identify aquaculture as an application for the platform?
Coming from the Godavari belt, I have seen how important and sensitive aquaculture is, particularly timely and uniform feed distribution. Manual feeding from pond boundaries can require considerable effort while making consistent distribution difficult. We therefore asked why the drone could not serve aquaculture too. With its spreading payload, NIKA2 can distribute feed more systematically, improving reach and uniformity while reducing strenuous manual work. It also reflects our larger approach: innovation can come from configuring an existing platform for an underserved problem.
What makes NIKA2’s design practical and accessible?
Affordability is not only the purchase price; it is whether the investment remains productive and generates sustainable revenue. Government initiatives, including agricultural drone programmes and Namo Drone Didi, have accelerated adoption, but sustained utilisation remains important. Multiple payloads, simple interchangeability and applications spanning spraying, aquaculture and plantations can help. The same platform should be able to move from spraying to spreading instead of becoming an idle asset after one season. We also operate a DGCA-authorised RPTO in Amalapuram, closer to Tier-II and Tier-III ecosystems, making training and support more accessible to farmers, youth and women.
How much of NIKA2’s technology has been developed in-house, and what was the most technically challenging part of building it in India?
Indigenous product development does not mean an OEM must manufacture every component. An OEM can design and engineer the complete product, define its architecture, integrate systems, control quality and own its technology and IP while sourcing specialised components from qualified suppliers. At AkinAnalytics, we design and engineer NIKA2 as a complete product, including architecture, specifications, payload integration, applications and associated IP. Our nano-drone development taught us that DeepTech is a journey of disciplined iteration. Over roughly ten months, three major design iterations and close to `10 lakh went into solving issues including polarisation and communication/link-loss behaviour.
AkinAnalytics describes itself as a women-led DeepTech and Defence Technology company. How has your experience as a founder shaped the way the company approaches the technology sectors?
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw ma’am has long inspired me. Her journey showed me that where you begin does not define how far you can build. I never felt being a woman meant I could not enter technology; I was fortunate to grow up with equal opportunities and exposure to technically demanding sectors. Entrepreneurship demands ability, patience, resilience, grit and execution, regardless of gender. I believe founders need not be the best engineer in every discipline. They need clarity, curiosity and the vision to bring the right people together. Technology has no gender, and women should not wait until they know everything before entering DeepTech.
Beyond the physical drone, you are developing an AI-Augmented Drone Analytics Platform and Digital Twin technologies. Tell us about it?
NIKA2 is one specialised product within our agricultural ecosystem, while AI and Digital Twins represent AkinAnalytics’ larger intelligence capability. AI can serve as the intelligence layer, while a Digital Twin is a digital representation of a physical asset, environment or system. We are developing an agricultural ecosystem that can connect farmers needing drone services with trained pilots, creating access for farmers and work opportunities for operators. Beyond agriculture, our AI-Augmented Drone Analytics Platform uses drones to acquire high-resolution image and spatial data, then applies AI, ML, computer vision and advanced analytics to turn it into actionable insights, Digital Twins and decision-support dashboards. A drone image is only data; our objective is to shorten the distance between ground reality and the decision that must be made.
You have received support through NIDHI PRAYAS, Startup India Seed Fund, MeitY SAMRIDH and the iDEX ecosystem. What role have these programmes played in taking AkinAnalytics from an idea to a deployable indigenous technology platform?
Government support has played an important role in our journey. NIDHI PRAYAS, Startup India Seed Fund Scheme and MeitY SAMRIDH, along with mentorship and ecosystem exposure through iDEX and the College of Defence Management, provided more than grants: incubation, technical validation, institutional access and demonstration opportunities. A memorable milestone was demonstrating NIKA2 before Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan ji. I describe our journey as roughly 70 percent team effort and execution, 20 percent mentorship and ecosystem access, and 10 percent grants — not as accounting, but to emphasise that grants alone do not build a company. For DeepTech, where every prototype iteration costs money, that combination of capital, validation and access can be especially important.
AkinAnalytics also operates a DGCA-authorised Remote Pilot Training Organisation in Amalapuram. How important is building a skilled drone workforce alongside developing indigenous drone hardware?
The RPTO idea came from our own experience. While working on drone analytics for mining, energy and infrastructure, we repeatedly saw a shortage of properly skilled pilots. If we were building the technology, I felt we also had a responsibility to build the workforce that could operate it. The Government’s focus on Namo Drone Didi strengthened that conviction, particularly around empowering Self-Help Group women. Our RPTO is about skills, employment and entrepreneurship, not merely certificates. Located in Amalapuram, it makes training more accessible to farmers, youth, engineering graduates and women in Tier-II/Tier-III and rural communities. Building indigenous technology and the people who can use it effectively must grow together.