IG Drones in talks with Kerala govt to train, create drone workforce for Gulf nations
Delhi-based IG Drones, an end-to-end done solutions firm, is in discussions with the Kerala Government to train and create a drone workforce that can work in the Gulf countries, particularly the agriculture sector.
“The Kerala Government is very proactive (in creating the workforce through training). We can also create inhouse workforce who will work within the country and analyse drone data. It will be like the 80 per cent satellite image analysis business outsourced to India from the US and Europe,” said IG Drones founder and CEO Bodhisattwa Sanghapriya.
Analysing drone or agricultural data could be a huge business like the satellite imagery analysis business. “With drone data analysis, we can create a large data processing workforce in the country,” Sanghapriya said, adding that IG drones is eyeing these opportunities.
Besides Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat are proactive in the upskilling of youth, students and farmers in drone technology.
Training farmers
IG Drones, which produced its first drone within days of being launched in 2018 in view of the founders’ experience in building rockets, has trained about 10,000 farmers with the latest drone technology so that they use it without any problem.
In particular, the agriculture drone industry can emerge as a key sector for India in outsourcing drone operations and for data analysis of agricultural lands, he told businessline in an online interaction. “Just like Infosys and TCS have done in the BPO sector I think the drone sector can also play a role in that direction by creating a workforce to operate drones. We can actually go to all African countries, West Asian countries and even to Europe. We can actually export our skilled workforce (in drones) there,” Sanghapriya said.
There is a huge shortage of drone pilots and the recent introduction of the drone didi scheme will only increase the problem. However, companies such as IG Drones have identified the manpower shortage problem and are trying to create a workforce like the IT majors.
The company has entered into partnerships with National Skill Development Corporation, FICCI and other such organisations, including skill development councils, to train people in operating drones. The drone company has emerged as one of the largest skill development firms, particularly in upskilling and reskilling in drone technology.
Ambitious plan
“We have an ambitious plan of upskilling 10 million youth with the latest drone technology. We have started experimenting with different kinds of students in drone technology,” he said.
IG Drones, which has offices in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Mumbai besides Delhi, has identified students of industrial training institutes (ITI) as more suitable for training in drone technology. It has trained 5,000 ITI students so far and rolled out a course for them with the results being “impressive”.
One of the reasons why ITI students themselves prefer to join the drone sector is that they get better treatment, while their income doubles. “When ITI students join the drone industry, they tend to serve for a longer period. Earlier, they were treated as industry grade workers. From dirt and dust, the drone industry has turned their life to dignity. Their salaries have increased to ₹30,000 a month from ₹10,000-12,000,” said Sanghapriya.
IG Drones, which plans to expand to Dubai, Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region besides other Gulf nations, is mentoring some 30-plus institutes as industry partner in drone technology.
USP of its drone
Witnessing reverse migration taking place after the Covid pandemic, the drone company targeted that population and upskilled them. These people have now got the opportunity to work as drone pilots in their own villages.
A speciality of the drones manufactured by the company is that they are integrated with 5G technology. These are autonomous and semi-autonomous that are controlled by its central server.
Farmers need to carry their drones to their farms and click a few buttons on their smartphones. That will automatically set its artificial intelligence (AI) running for the drones to operate on the field.
This is helping the company to transmit real data such as the quality of the soil, crop and irrigation pattern. These are fed into the server real-time and the algorithm takes care commanding the drones to obey the orders from the server.
The company, which has produced 500 drones so far, also produces intelligent drones powered by AI, which means farmers need not fly the drones themselves. “Farmers just need to operate their smartphones,” said Sanghapriya.
Data analysis takes place during the drone operation and what is being done is precision farming, he said, adding that this eliminates the need to train farmers in operating drones.
FPOs procuring drones
Stating that Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are adapting drone technology better, the company’s CEO and founder said, who had in his university days worked in a rocket project that was later acquired by ISRO, different policies rolled out by the Union and State Governments have also helped.
Drones are being used for various purposes and not just for spraying insecticides and pesticides. It can help monitor a crop from sowing till harvest and also the irrigation pattern. The mapping can help figure out the terrains besides the crop health.
Stating that farmer producer organisations are buying drones rather than individual farmers, Sanghapriya said this has helped in creation of drone as service (DAS). The Centre, too, provides incentives up to 70 per cent to FPOs for procuring drones.