Assures them handholding & support
The two-day Amaravati Drone Summit 2024, got underway among huge fanfare in Amaravati with the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr N Chandrababu Naidu inaugurating the summit along with Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr K.Rammohan Naidu.
Addressing a gathering of entrepreneurs, drone manufacturers, policy makers, students and academicians, the chief minister urged drone manufacturers to come set up base in Andhra Pradesh and also motivated them to come up with successful used case scenarios which can be implemented in sectors across the state.
‘We want to use drone for development’ said the chief minister highlighting the various applications of drones such as in flood management, garbage disposal, safety, transport etc.
The CM further emphasised drone manufacturers to come out with solutions that are cost effective and bring in transparency in governance.
Showcasing the state’s commitment in becoming a hub for the drone industry the CM said that AP would be happy to work with the central government and the civil aviation ministry in getting this sector full support.
‘We want to make Amaravati as the Drone city of India and aim to train 20,000 drone certified pilots. We therefore are willing to give GoI 300 acres of land in Kurnool district to establish certification agency and manufacturing hub’ said the CM.
He further informed that a Drone policy will be unveiled in 15 days after taking stakeholders inputs.
Also speaking on the occasion Civil Aviation Minister Mr Rammohan Naidu lauded, the CM’s visionary outlook and said that this was a 1st of its kind summit happening outside national capital.
‘Many CMs who come and meet me typically ask for more airports, more connectivity, heliports etc. It is only our CM of AP who not also asked for those but dug a little deeper and asked us about drones and what are we doing in this area’ recalled Mr Rammohan.
Commenting on the drone sector he said that the Government of India had Liberalised rules for drone industry to have more investments come in R&D and informed that GoI had banned the total import of drones just to encourage startups in India to manufacture drones.
‘We have the Digital sky platform for registration for drones. There are about 26,500 drones registered in the country. However, our PM, Mr Narendra Modi has urged us to have at least 1 lakh drones to be registered’.
The civil aviation minister also threw light on the Drone didi program which aims to empowering 30k women in the agri sector.
Two MOUs
At the event two memorandums of understanding were signed wherein agreements were made with the Quality Council of India and IIT Tirupati.
The MOU with the Quality Council of India will allow AP to issue Drone Remote Pilot License certificates while the MOU with IIT Tirupati was signed to be a knowledge partner.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Mr S Suresh kumar, IAS secretary to government of AP, Investment & Infrastructure, Mr Neerabh Kumar Prasad, IAS chief secretary to GoAP, Mr Vumlunmang Vualnam, IAS, Secretary Ministry of Civil Aviation, GoI, Mr BC Janardhan Reddy, minister for roads, buildings, infrastructure & investments, GoAP, Mr Smit Shah, President Drone federation of India.
