Strong Demand for Trained Drone Pilots: Amber Dubey

There exists a healthy demand for trained drone pilots in both defence as well as civil areas, a senior government official said on Friday.

According to Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Amber Dubey, "There is a lot of demand on the defence and civilian side. The Svamitva project by the Survey of India itself includes 6.6 lakh villages to be mapped by 2024.

"This is a stiff target, but we must surprise the world. We are a nation of large numbers and the scope for adoption of drone technology is immense given the development and agriculture projects being executed."

He was speaking at an industry event here which was organised to facilitate India's first batch of certified RPAS (remotely-piloted aircraft system) pilots by the Redird Flight Training Academy.

Captain Abhilasha Singh, VP Training, Redbird Flight Training Academy, said: "Not only is this an effective skill development opportunity, but also a critical tool for rural development."

Apart from growing its capacity to be able to train over 1,000 drone pilots every month subject to regulatory clearances, RFTA also stated that they are committed to make this training accessible to the grass-roots level.

"The training institute will offer free training in over a hundred villages across India and locally appoint boys and girls to grow homegrown capability of drone surveillance supporting the development across regions and aid the ongoing digital mapping initiative across rural India," the academy said in a statement.

"There have been multiple practical applications of drones identified for effective aerial surveillance, data gathering, mapping and analysis in development of projects," it added.