Drones: The New Frontier

Drones are about to open up a completely new dimension in application areas as diverse as photography, delivery and security. From a 2-D world where cars and delivery vans run the length and breadth of a country, people and goods can soon take to the air. Such innovations bring new opportunities for entrepreneurs, but also need deft regulatory support, says Jayant Sinha

- Jayant Sinha

Indian entrepreneurs have excelled at frugal innovation. India’s businesses solve hard consumer problems using technology superbly well and now define the global productivity frontier for mass services. Take mobile data networks and the BHIM app for example. As a result of this, India has become the ideal laboratory for figuring out how to serve consumers in the fast-growing developing world – the ‘Next Six Billion’ as they are called.

A vast and intriguing new market has emerged — drone technology and drone-driven applications. Research reports have estimated that the drone-driven market globally will soon be more than $10 billion. In India, various experts have estimated that market opportunities could soon exceed thousands of crores.

Drones can revolutionise agriculture and assist significantly in achieving the goal of doubling farmer incomes. They can be used to study farms through specialised imaging, and recommend appropriate interventions. They can help farmers cut their input costs through precision agriculture - applying expensive fertilizers and pesticides only where needed. They can also be used by insurance firms to quickly survey and assess the extent of crop damage digitally.

Another area of opportunity is e-commerce. Delivery and pick-up of goods by drones can add another dimension by increasing the viability of many-to-many commerce. Facilitating drone delivery will require setting up an entirely new logistics infrastructure. New, practical and socially-useful use-cases like delivery of medicines, or indeed blood, can be made possible by drones. Many of these use-cases will emerge as regulations evolve.