Rs 120 Crore Incentives Allocated for Drone Manufacturing

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Singh said, "the Government is providing a total incentive of Rs 120 crore spread over three financial years starting 2021-22. The incentive for 2021-22 will be payable in 2022-23 after scrutiny of the financial results of the beneficiaries."

The government will provide the incentives under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and drone components. The scheme was notified on September 30, 2021.

A provisional list of 23 PLI beneficiaries was released on July 6, 2022. The beneficiaries include 12 drone manufacturers and 11 drone component manufacturers.

The firms shortlisted for drone manufacturing incentives include Aarav Unmanned Systems, Bengaluru, Karnataka; Asteria Aerospace, Bengaluru, Karnataka; Dhaksha Unmanned Systems, Chennai, Tamil Nadu; EndureAir Systems, Noida, Uttar Pradesh; Garuda Aerospace, Chennai, Tamil Nadu; Ideaforge Technology, Mumbai, Maharashtra; IoTechWorld Avigation, Gurugram, Haryana; Omnipresent Robot Technologies, Gurugram, Haryana; Raphe Mphibr, Noida, Uttar Pradesh; Roter Precision Instruments, Roorkee, Uttarakhand; Sagar Defence Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra; and Throttle Aerospace Systems, Bengaluru, Karnataka.

The companies shortlisted for drone component manufacturing 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 government has specified separate eligibility criteria for MSMEs and non-MSME firms for the incentive schemes.

The eligibility norm for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and startups is specified as Rs 2 crore of annual sales revenue for drone manufacturers and Rs 50 lakh of annual sales revenue for drone component manufacturers.

The eligibility norm for Non-MSME is specified as Rs 4 crore of annual sales revenue for drone manufacturers and Rs 1 crore of annual sales revenue for drone component manufacturers. Minimum value addition is specified as 40 per cent of net sales.