New Delhi, October 0222.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Drone Destination today announced their collaboration to expand flying schools across the country. The initiative is aimed at fulfilling the vision of making India the drone hub for the world and NSDC’s focus is to promote skill development in the sector as it has huge potential to propel India’s economic growth if supported by a strong collaborative approach. Further, under the partnership, NSDC will also provide loans through its associated NBFCs for the aspiring pilots to undergo training with Drone Destination and receive high-quality skills, augmenting theAatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

Based on the announcements made during the Union Budget 2022, several initiatives have been put forth by the Indian government to make India a global drone hub. With transforming capabilities, drone technology will disrupt industries and businesses. In addition, the Drone Rules, 2021 has replaced complex approval processes required to fly drones and made the certification process easier.

On the collaboration, Mr. Ved Mani Tiwari, COO, NSDC, said, the rate of drone adoption in India has been phenomenal and it will continue to grow as the technology has immense usage potential being realised by users across the globe. There is already a huge requirement for skilled manpower in the sector, including trained pilots and this demand is only bound to increase. It is estimated that the country would need overthreelakh drone pilots within the span of nextfiveyears and understanding this demand, NSDC is committed to partnerwith leading organizations such as Drone Destination to assist in building the necessary skill infrastructure for large scale employment opportunities.

Mr. Chirag Sharma, CEO of Drone Destination, said, drone training provides the highest return on investment for any certification program available in the country. Our partnership with NSDC will be doubly beneficial for the youth as there will soon be more drone hubs across the country and further, aspiring pilots can get loans for skill development in this new sunrise sector. Availability of loans will make the drone revolution a truly inclusive one by widening the base of aspirants who want to be a part of this change-making technology.

Drone destination’s Drone Hubs will not only provide training for Remote Pilot Certification but will also provide several types of much needed application-based training including, survey and mapping, assets inspection, surveillance and monitoring, cinematography and more.

Mr. Sharma further stated, our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji’s vision — ‘harhaathmein smart phone, har khet meindrone, hargharsamradhi’ — will revolutionise Indian agriculture. We will move towards precision agriculture that will require lakhs of drone pilots operating in the fields of India to increase yield and meet the food requirement of not just the country but also the world. Increased farm income will enable youth to stop migrating from villages to towns in search of employment and instead allow them to use drone technology for harvesting not just crop, but also prosperity. This is the beginning of a new era for Drone Destination. Over next five years, the company will have a Drone Hub within 6 to 8 hours of every tehsil in the country to deliver quick, efficient and affordable drone services, including.

training pilots, maintaining unmanned aerial vehicles and rent-a-drone-with-pilot.

The Prime Minister instilled confidence in the workforce related to agriculture sector by promising that India's rising capability in the drone sector will give the world a new leadership, as early this year, he flagged off 100 'kisan drones' in different parts of the country for spraying pesticides and other farm materials.By focusing on drone industry, manufacturing and service industries expected to get a huge boost. Likely to create 10,000 direct jobs and 5 lakh service jobs in next three years.Looking at the potential of drone industry to provide job opportunities in huge numbers in the coming future, ITIs are also introducing courses that will fulfil the demand of skilled workforce in this sector.

National Skill Development Corporation

Giving boost to Government Skill India Mission, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a nodal skill development agency, working under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, is a unique Public Private Partnership (PPP) that aims to catalyse the creation of a large and quality vocational training ecosystem in India. Since inception in 2010, NSDC has trained over three crore people through its collaboration with training partners pan India.

NSDC has established 37 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) and implements the Government’s flagship skill development schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), among others. NSDC also funds enterprises, companies and organisations that provide skill training. The organisation enables private-sector capacity building in skill development by offering concessional loans, other innovative financial products, and strategic partnerships.

About Drone Destination

Drone Destination is fast emerging as India’s largest network of Drone Hubs, each offering an end-to-end solution for most Drone related requirements.  Started by a veteran of Indian aviation, Mr Alok Sharma, the group manufactures its own designed drones, trains drone pilots, and rents out drones with pilots to end users and takes care of maintenance and offers Drone data processing with its partners.  The group’ flagship manufacturing and training headquarters is at a seven-acre sprawling complex in Manesar, Gurugram.Drone Destination is the preferred training partner and has signed long term MOUs with India’s largest conglomerates that are going to use drones in a big way, like Asteria Aerospace, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries’ mega Jio Platforms, and several other leading sectoral names like InDrones and Garuda UAV. Recently, Drone Destination rolled out one of the biggest deployment of Drones in a single day to service the much coveted “Prime Minister Svamitva Yojana”. With this Drone Destination has taken a giant leap in the Drone Services sector as well.Drone Destination aims to do at least 1 lakh Villages mapping in the current Scheme, in addition to doing large scale mapping of at least 1 lakh Sq Km. It has partnered with two GIS companies Neo Geo Informatics and Matrix Geo Solutions to execute this project.