I’ll be brand ambassador to promote drone tech: CM

Guntur: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday promised that he will be the brand ambassador for the drone industry to promote its ecosystem and transform the state into a drone hub. He emphasized on the importance of entrepreneurship and called for “One family, One Entrepreneur, One startup.”

Addressing a two-day national drone summit at Mangalagiri in Guntur district, the Chief Minister called on the drone players to use the southern state as a pilot or testing ground for producing drone use cases and proof of concepts. He outlined how these innovations would drive the state’s growth and keep the state at the forefront of technology driven development. “Andhra Pradesh will be a testing bed for drone applications. It will be a game changer,” he said.

Naidu noted that the state government is keen on adopting at least 150 drone use cases during the two-day summit. Calling on drone ecosystem players, the CM requested them to put their data and use cases in a sandbox for further validation and enhancement.

He said these unmanned aerial vehicles have multiple use cases, such as identifying traffic violations, criminals and in agriculture. Some countries are using them for war purposes also, he said. Naidu said the state government aims to hand over 20,000 drone pilot certificates and achieve 80 per cent indigenisation in drone manufacturing. “The government wants Amaravati to become the drone capital of India. The initiative aims to boost drone manufacturing, innovation and research,” he said

Promising to allot 300 acres to the Civil Aviation Ministry, Government of India, Naidu requested the Centre to set up a drone certification hub at Orvakal in Kurnool district, which is near to Hyderabad, Chennai and Amaravati.

Stating that Andhra Pradesh was always ahead in adopting cutting-edge technology to solve pressing challenges, he explained how the government for the first time in the country used drones to reach the last mile during recent floods in Vijayawada city.

Further, the CM appealed to drone players to keep their costs reasonable and refrain from being "greedy" to enable wider adoption of this technology. The State government inked an agreement with the Quality Council of India (QCI) for certifying drone startups in the state. There was also an agreement between IIT-Tirupati and Technology Innovative Hub for collaboration in drone technology development, startups and skill initiatives.