The Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (Retd) VK Singh declared on Monday that the government will be granting Rs 120 crore in incentives over the next three years for the manufacture of drones and drone components under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Singh stated that the incentives for 2021-22 shall be paid out in 2022-23 after evaluation of the beneficiaries’ financial results. The PLI scheme for drones and drone components was announced on September 30, 2021. A provisional list of 23 PLI beneficiaries was published on July 6, 2022, which includes 12 drone manufacturers and 11 drone component manufacturers.
The drone manufacturers that have been shortlisted for incentives are 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 drone component manufacturers that have been shortlisted are 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 established different eligibility criteria for MSMEs and non-MSME firms for the incentive schemes. The eligibility criteria for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and startups is Rs 2 crore of annual sales revenue for drone manufacturers and Rs 50 lakh of annual sales revenue for drone component manufacturers. For non-MSME, the eligibility criteria is Rs 4 crore of annual sales revenue for drone manufacturers and Rs 1 crore of annual sales revenue for drone component manufacturers. The minimum value addition required is 40% of net sales. (ANI)