Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee & Garuda Aerospace, a leading drone manufacturer & agro-ecosystem integrator registered under Start-Up India and MSME, signed a long term partnership agreement to jointly address the growing demand for indigenous drone pilots in the rapidly developing indian drone ecosystem.
The MoU between the parties is across areas of upcoming drone technologies in the principal technical and research areas of Software, Robotics, Digital solutions, Drone Pilot training, Demos, other related areas in AI based solutions and initiate joint (pilot) projects. IIT Roorkee will be providing the application-based solution i.e., AI based monitoring, among others. Garuda will be providing the real time implementations.
Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, highlighted, “To facilitate work from IlT Roorkee, students and faculty members would be identified for collaborative development of Make in India Drones. Students will be motivated to intern for the hardware development and droneflying strategies according to DGCA, depending on the type of requirements.”
Dharmendra Singh, Coordinator, Drone Research Centre, IIT Roorkee, said, “Our goal is to develop a Drone Ecosystem through industry partnerships and provide value added research inputs. In cooperation, we will develop futuristic AI drones, educate farmers and AgriTech service providers, and make them future ready. Additionally, training road shows and drone and surveillance technology aero-shows are in progress.”
Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO, Garuda Aerospace, said, “The association is a step towards realizing prime minister’s vision of manufacturing 1 lakh Make in India Kisaan Drones by the end of 2023.”
Garuda Aerospace recently partnered with Food tech unicorn Swiggy & have expanded to 26 cities across India including IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai under the guidance of Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala.
“Garuda Aerospace has prioritized strategic partnerships with renowned organizations like IITs, DRDO, ISRO, CSIR, BHEL & HAL as our joint innovations will create awareness among farmers for use of Drones and its benefits, generating job opportunities. This will enable us to take Make in India UAV drones global and compete with leading companies,” added Jayaprakash.
