35K drone pilots to make AP drone hub

Guntur: The State Government on Tuesday released a concept note on drone policy which aims to train 35,000 drone pilots in Andhra Pradesh positioning the state as a human resource hub for drone technology. There will be a comprehensive drone policy to establish a business-friendly environment for manufacturers and innovators in the next 15 days.

Addressing a two-day drone summit, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said this would help to create a skilled workforce capable of meeting the growing demand for drones in various industries.

He said 400 million terabytes of data was being generated daily and when combined with AI it has the potential to drive innovations to different levels. The CM also spoke about the knowledge economy driven by AI, machine learning and cloud technologies. He asked the participants to think globally.

Naidu said that the country is fortunate to have dynamic leadership in Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had promoted Brand India across the globe. Under his stewardship India is set to become the third largest economy globally by 2047. He said if the Centre and State governments work together, no one can stop the country from becoming number one in economy in the world. He also referred to the JAM initiative of Modi (Jan Dhan Aadhaar Mobile) scheme and said it had helped in strengthening India’s digital economy.

Earlier, Union Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said that the government does not want to import drones as it envisages the people of the country are capable of manufacturing them. The aviation minister said the Centre has liberalised rules for the drone ecosystem and enabled 27 companies to benefit from the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

Noting that India has emerged as a drone hub in the past few years, the Union Minister said the government wants to ensure that the southern state would emerge as the drone hub of the world.

Ram Mohan Naidu said the double-engine sarkar led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state government led by Chandrababu Naidu want to encourage young talent.

“I am a standing example of it. At the age of 36, I got the opportunity to become a Union Minister and have been given the responsibility of developing the Aviation sector in the country. He asked the drone manufacturers to make the best use of the opportunities provided by the state government.