Namo Drone Didi Yojana: Drones Going The Distance
· Free Press Journal
Drones promise to leapfrog logistics in India, and the Department of Posts has been experimenting with their use for article movement for some time now. Gujarat was chosen for the country’s first postal drone operation in 2022, when mail was transported across 46 km in 25 minutes from Habay in Bhuj taluk to Ner in Bhachau taluk of the Kutch district. The programme is now being expanded by India Post to Himachal Pradesh, in partnership with a private drone company, to move mail bags between account offices and branch post offices up to 80 km away. Assam, too, is set to join the postal drone delivery project soon.
People living in remote areas and difficult terrain without reliable logistics channels could find their lives transformed if postal articles and essential goods can be moved by drones quickly. The state of drone technology indicates that it is possible to use these flying machines for postal operations to carry up to 10 kg of cargo in temperatures varying between a chill -10 degree C and a searing 50 degree C. Weather-proofed drones are the future and are capable of sophisticated adaptation, thanks to machine learning and AI. Interestingly, machines were preceded by the colourful and intriguing stories of homing pigeons that were similarly used to deliver letters and for military messaging even a century ago; one pigeon, Cher Ami, is preserved in a US museum as a World War I hero for saving the Allied troops by ferrying a message even after suffering a shot wound. Modern-day drone manufacture has expanded to several companies and is being specifically tried out in agriculture: a government-led farming-orientated training scheme for women drone pilots, a component of which is the Namo Drone Didi Yojana, is offered through self-help groups.
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The potential of robust drones to serve civilian and defence objectives is doubtless strong, and the Union government is viewing their use in logistics, agriculture, and disaster management as employment drivers. Several official training programmes are now available, ranging from an M. Tech at IITs to end-user certification, with official data suggesting that there are nearly 43,000 trained remote pilots. Public health is another important area that could benefit from wider deployment of drones, notably in remote rural areas where access to critical drugs at the level of primary health centres depends heavily on logistics and cold chains. In montane states, such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, the Northeast, and elsewhere, the movement of anti-venom by drones could save the lives of snakebite victims who currently die tragically as no intervention is possible. India’s ambitions to become a global drone hub can scale up with a strong manufacturing and funding ecosystem that nurtures innovation. Reliable access to critical electronics and a programme of indigenisation hold the key. The India Post project in Himachal Pradesh and Assam will be closely watched to assess how high the civilian drone project can fly.