Aviation ministry releases first list of beneficiaries for drone manufacturing

NEW DELHI: The ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) released the first provisional list of 14 beneficiaries under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drone and drone components, which include five drone manufacturers and nine drone component manufacturers, an official said. The ministry had invited applications from eligible manufacturers on March 10 this year and the last date for submission was March 31. “The provisional list of PLI beneficiaries has been prepared on the basis of the financial data submitted by applicants for the ten-month period- April 2021 till January 2022,” the official said. “These beneficiaries have crossed the eligibility criteria related to sales revenue and value addition in the ten-month period itself,” the official added. The list of shortlisted drone manufacturers includes Dhaksha Unmanned Systems in Chennai, Ideaforge Technology in Mumbai, Io TechWorld Avigation and Omnipresent Robot Technologies in Gurguram and Raphe Mphibr in Noida. The shortlisted drone components manufacturers include, Absolute Composites, Bangalore, Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India, Hyderabad, Adroitec Information Systems, Delhi, Alpha Design Technologies, Bangalore, Inventgrid India, Sambalpur Paras Aerospace, Bangalore, SASMOS HET Technologies, Bangalore, ZMotion Autonomous Systems, Bangalore and Geo Navigation Technologies in Chennai. “This list is likely to be expanded since some more manufacturers are likely to exceed the eligibility criteria for the full financial year 2021-22,” MoCA said. “The final list of PLI beneficiaries is expected to be released by June 30, 2022 after detailed scrutiny of their financial results and other specified documents,” a public notice issued by Ambey Dubey, MoCA joint secretary, read. The PLI scheme for drones and drone components was notified on September 30, 2021. The circular said that under the scheme, a total incentive of ₹120 crore is spread over three financial years which is nearly double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21. “The PLI rate is 20% of the value addition which is one of the highest among other PLI schemes. A unique feature of the drone PLI scheme is that the manufacturers who fail to meet the value addition threshold in 2021-22 will be allowed to claim the lost incentive in the subsequent year if they make up the shortfall in 2022-23,” a statement from MoCA said.