Aero Innovation Center Sets its Sights on Start-ups | TechTree.com

Aero Innovation Center Sets its Sights on Start-ups

The new center in Bengaluru aims to facilitate aspiring entrepreneurs to conduct R&D as part of developing India into a drone hub

 

Having set its sights on becoming a global hub for electronics and automobiles, India is now all set to forge ahead with its dream of becoming a destination for the manufacture and use of drones across multiple industries, ranging from defense to agriculture and pretty much everything in between. 

Towards this end, the Aeronautical Society of India inaugurated the Aero Innovation and Skill Center (AISC) at Bengaluru over the weekend with the aim to mentor start-ups, students and entrepreneurs in the aerospace and aviation sectors. The center already has shortlisted 15 to 20 start-ps for this purpose, said DRDO chairman Dr. D. Satheesh Reddy. 

Reddy said India is already working on drone applications in the defense and civilian sectors and needs to hand-hold the youth to boost innovations for which the AISC is the way forward. In the defense and aerospace sectors, we make products that were earlier imported but are now being made within the country itself, he added. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted the government's vision of converting India into a drone hub during the Bharat Drone Mahotsav held on May 27. “Drone is a smart tool that will be part of the life of common Indians, be it on an agricultural field, or playground, media or film industry. We will see more use of the technology in the coming days,” he had said, hoping that drone use will spike in sectors such as sports, agriculture, defense and disaster management. 

Earlier, the Aeronautical Society of India convenor P Mueen Khan had stated that the new Center would facilitate aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups to carry out research and development programs to build products and solutions that would be forwarded to defense agencies as part of an effort to catalyze the entire defense start-up ecosystem in India. 

The start-ups shortlisted by the Center would receive mentorship from DRDO experts as well as those from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Dr. Reddy said IIT graduates who went abroad for higher education, would now have the option of staying back and working in hitech industries within the country. 

Meanwhile, software and cloud services provider Altair India and the Aeronautical Society of India have signed an agreement to bridge the skill gap between the industry and academics and to nurture the start-up ecosystem in the aerospace and defense sectors. 

In fact, Modi had highlighted the multiple use cases of drones, including in the project of digitally mapping land and offering title deeds to property owners. He had said that the project would see for the first time, the digital mapping of every property in villages across the country with digital property cards being handed out to owners. Thus far 65 lakh such cards have been issued. 


TAGS: drones, AISC, aeronautical society

 
News Corner
IMP IMP IMP
##