HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia marked the successful launch of the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ project in Vikarabad on Saturday. Stating that it would go down in history as “a revolutionary initiative”, Scindia said India was not just a follower, but a world leader in bringing ground-breaking technological drone innovations to the fore.
He, along with Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao and Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, launched three drones developed by Marut Drones, Sky Air and TechEagle Innovations, which successfully carried payloads of vaccines in a controlled environment to a community health centre located 6 km away from the launch site at the Police Parade Grounds.
“The dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become a reality now,” Scindia said, while pointing out that the recently introduced drone rules and policy by the Centre were based on trust, self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring.
“As per the new rules, there would still be multiple interventions, but with no human interface, to upload data and get permissions for flight. This opens doors to unleash the great potential of young innovators,” he said.
The Union Minister also said that efforts were on to converge with the State governments to prepare an interactive airspace map — which would be ready in a month or two — with green, yellow and red zones for flying drones. As many as 16 green zones would be exclusively marked for delivering medicines, vaccines, blood units, and even organs to the remotest of areas, Scindia said.
The Union Minister said that strict measures were in place to register drones with unique numbers, just like automobiles, and that there would be a thorough screening process in the case of drone importing.
Scindia also said that in the future, drones could even be used to ferry passengers, just like cabs, and that by 2030, India would be the global hub of drone technology.
UNIQUE NUMBERS FOR DRONES
Scindia said that strict measures were in place to register drones with unique numbers, just like automobiles, and that there would be a thorough screening process in the case of drone importing