Govt releases 23 beneficiary startups for drones under the PLI scheme

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has announced the 23 indigenous companies, including 12 drone manufacturers and 11 drone component producers, that have been listed as beneficiaries of the government's first ever Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme aimed at the drone industry.

The list has been chosen based on the companies’ unaudited financial results for the last fiscal year. The criteria included an annual sales turnover of at least Rs 2 crore for drone producers, and at least Rs 50 lakh for drone component manufacturers.

The companies that have been shortlisted for incentives under the drone manufacturers category include, Aarav Unmanned Systems Asteria Aerospace, and Throttle Aerospace Systems from Bengaluru, Karnataka; Dhaksha Unmanned Systems and Garuda Aerospace from Chennai, Tamil Nadu; EndureAir Systems and Raphe Mphibr from Noida, Uttar Pradesh; Ideaforge Technology, Mumbai, Maharashtra; IoTechWorld Avigation and Omnipresent Robot Technologies from Gurugram, Haryana; and Sagar Defence Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra.

The companies shortlisted for incentives under the drone component manufacturers category include Absolute Composites, Bengaluru, Karnataka; Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India, Hyderabad, Telangana; Adroitec Information Systems, New Delhi; Alpha Design Technologies, Bengaluru, Karnataka; Dynamake Engineering, Hyderabad, Telangana; Imaginarium Rapid, Mumbai, Maharashtra; SASMOS HET Technologies, Bengaluru, Karnataka; Servocontrols Aerospace India, Belagavi, Karnataka; Valdel Advanced Technologies, Bengaluru, Karnataka; ZMotion Autonomous Systems, Bengaluru, Karnataka; and Zuppa Geo Navigation Technologies, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The combined annual sales turnover of the shortlisted companies has increased from Rs 88 crore in FY 2020-21 to Rs 319 crore (unaudited) in FY 2021-22. 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 years which is nearly double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21.