The Ministry of Civil Aviation has released the first provisional list of 14 companies that make drones and drone components have been chosen for financial benefits under the government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme.
The list includes five drone manufacturers and nine drone component manufacturers. The ministry invited applications from eligible manufacturers on 10th March 2022 and the last date for submission was 31st March 2022.
The eligibility criteria for the PLI scheme for drones and drone components includes an annual sales turnover of Rs 2 crore for drone companies and Rs 50 lacs for drone components manufacturers; and value addition of over 40% of sales turnover.
Under the scheme, a total incentive of Rs 120 crore is spread over three financial years which is nearly double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in 2020-21. The PLI rate is 20% of the value addition which is one of the highest among PLI schemes.
A unique feature of the drone PLI scheme is that the manufacturers who fail to meet the value addition threshold in 2021-22 will be allowed to claim the lost incentive in the subsequent year if they make up the shortfall in 2022-23.
The list of shortlisted drone manufacturers is as follows:
1. Dhaksha Unmanned Systems, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
2. Ideaforge Technology, Mumbai, Maharashtra
3. Io TechWorld Avigation, Gurugram, Haryana
4. Omnipresent Robot Technologies, Gurguram, Haryana
5. Raphe Mphibr, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
The list of shortlisted drone components manufacturers is as follows:
1. Absolute Composites, Bangalore, Karnataka
2. Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India, Hyderabad, Telangana
3. Adroitec Information Systems, New Delhi
4. Alpha Design Technologies, Bangalore, Karnataka
5. Inventgrid India, Sambalpur. Odisha
6. Paras Aerospace, Bangalore, Karnataka
7. SASMOS HET Technologies, Bangalore, Karnataka
8. ZMotion Autonomous Systems, Bangalore, Karnataka
9. Zuppa Geo Navigation Technologies, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
The provisional list of PLI beneficiaries has been prepared on the basis of the financial data submitted by applicants for the 10-month period – April 2021 till January 2022. The shortlisted beneficiaries have crossed the eligibility criteria related to sales revenue and value addition in the 10-month period itself.
The list of beneficiaries is likely to be expanded further since some more manufacturers are likely to exceed the eligibility criteria for the full financial year 2021-22. The final list of PLI beneficiaries is expected to be released by 30th June 2022 after detailed scrutiny of their financial results and other specified documents.
Click here for the PLI scheme for drones and drone components: https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2021/230076.pdf
