Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022- India's biggest Drone Festival

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Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 3: Science and Technology-
- Developments and their applications and effects in everyday life;
- Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

भारत ड्रोन महोत्सव 2022- भारत का सबसे बड़ा ड्रोन महोत्सव

Recently, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s biggest Drone Festival – Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022.
He also interacted with Kisan drone pilots, witnessed open-air drone demonstrations and interacted with startups in the drone exhibition centre.

- Earlier, Prime Minister had flagged off 100 kisan dronesin different parts of the country for spraying pesticides and other farm materials.

About: Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022, India’s biggest drone festival, is being conducted on 27th and 28th May 2022.
- Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 Venue: Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 is being organized at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
Participation: more than 1600 delegates, consisting of government officials, armed forces, central armed police forces, Public Sector Units (PSUs), foreign diplomats, private companies as well as drone startups, etc., will participate in the Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022.
Key Events: more than 70 exhibitors will display various use cases of drones at the Drone Festival. The Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 will also witness-
- A virtual award of drone pilot certificates,
- Panel discussions,
- Product launches,
- A display of a ‘Made in India’ Drone Taxi prototype, and
- Flying demonstrations, among others.

Droneshave been used in the ‘Swamitva Yojana’ aimed at creating a record of land ownership in villages, and transporting medicines and vaccines.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), in early 2022 notified a drone certification scheme to ensure minimum safety and quality requirements as it will boost indigenous manufacturing.
In 2021, government has formulated a PLI scheme for drones and drone components with an allocation of Rs 120 crore spread over three financial years.
The government has also made an ambitious target of making India the drone hub of the world by 2030.
Government amended the guidelines of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) which envisages granting 100 per cent of the cost of agriculture drone or Rs 10 lakhs, as a grant for the purchase of drones by the farm machinery training and testing institutes, ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and state agriculture universities.
In 2021, the government came up with liberalised Drone Rules to create a ‘digital sky platform” which is a business-friendly single-window online system, with minimum human interference, where most of the permissions will be self-generated.