The Indian government on September 15 announced a Rs 120 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the drone industry which it claimed will bring investments of over Rs 5,000 crore in three years. This Rs 120 crore outlay is part of the Rs 26,000 crore earmarked for the PLI scheme of the automobile sector. The announcement of the PLI scheme comes weeks after the Indian government notified the Drone Rules 2021 which has been welcomed by the industry for being more liberal than its predecessor, the Unmanned Aerial System Rules 2021. In its PLI document, the Ministry of Civil Aviation reasoned that it was bringing drones under the incentive scheme as there was a lack of early-stage funding and bank loans for drone startups. The ministry said that for the industry to succeed in the future, it will need access to fiscal and monetary support — like other countries. https://twitter.com/PIB_India/status/1438072972011393039 A look into the announcements for the drone sector The PLI scheme offers an incentive of 20% to the manufacturers of drones and developers of drone-related software on their value addition. (The value additional shall be calculated as the net sales minus the purchase cost of drone components used therein) The minimum value addition norm has been fixed at 40% of net sales instead of 50% as in other PLI schemes. The proposed tenure of the scheme is three years starting in FY 2021-22 and the incentive rate is kept constant at 20% for all three years, instead of a…
