Indian drone industry to touch Rs 15,000 crore as turnover by 2026: Scindia

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Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Thursday the Indian drone industry is expected to have a turnover of up to Rs 15,000 crore by 2026, as the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme announced on Wednesday will give a major boost to the sector, along with the liberalised rules announced last month. The scheme for drones and drone components is spread over three financial years, with an allocation of Rs 120 crore.

Incentive for manufacturing

Under the PLI scheme, the incentive will be 20% of the value addition for manufacturing the drones and its components, in the next three years.

The scheme stated that value addition should be calculated as the difference between annual sales revenue (net of GST) from drones and drone components and the purchase cost (net of GST) of the same.

At present, Indian drone manufacturing companies have a turnover of approximately Rs 80 crore, Scindia said.

The three parts of the entire value chain in the drone sector are hardware (drone manufacturer), software and service delivery, and while combining the turnover of all these three parts will stand at $1.8 billion by 2026, he said. Also, the total turnover would be approximately between Rs 12, 000 to Rs 15,000 crore, he added.