The Telangana government on Saturday launched an innovative initiative, ‘medicine from the sky’, for the quick delivery of medicines through drone technology. The pilot project was launched in Vikarabad district by Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and Telangana cabinet minister KT Rama Rao.
The ‘Medicine from the Sky’ is spearheaded by the Emerging Technologies Wing of the ITE&C Department, in partnership with World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global (Apollo Hospitals).
The project entails India’s first organised BVLOS trials as multiple drone consortiums are participating together to establish the use case of long-range drone-based medical deliveries. This is also the first drone programme since MoCA had recently liberalised its drone policy.
As the first organised drone delivery programme in Asia, the trials are focused on laying the groundwork for the network that will improve access to vital health care supplies for remote and vulnerable communities.
The project is a first-of-its-kind as it lies in the overlap of two of the most regulated sectors in the world, aviation and healthcare.
The project has eight participating consortiums comprising drone operators, experts in healthcare and airspace management among others, that shall demonstrate short and long-range drone-based deliveries to assess the efficacy of low altitude aerial logistics in healthcare.
The launch shall be followed by about a month of continuous trials by the eight selected consortiums, that have been batched into two per week on a lottery basis, will conduct BVLOS trials and collect the data from each flight in a carefully crafted drone demo report covering all parameters.
The insights from these trials shall be used to drive adoption strategy for the State, and also publish reports that highlight Telangana’s experience and how the same can be leveraged by other States.
The selected consortiums along with their operators are namely Airserve Consortium (Airserve Initiatives); Bluedart Med Express Consortium (Skye Air); CurisFly Consortium (TechEagle Innovations); Dunzo Med Air Consortium (Skye Air); Flipkart Air Consortium (DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations); Helicopter Consortium (Marut Drones); Medisky Consortium (Sagar Defence Engineering); Redwing Consortium (Redwing Labs) where each consortium in addition to having a drone operator, also has a UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) partner, and a healthcare/cold-chain partner.
Speaking on the occasion, Scindia said, “The ministry’s new drone rules have unlocked the drone industry and the innovation therein on the principles of trust, self-certification, and non-intrusive monitoring. Drones are a frontier technology that can be used to access the otherwise inaccessible areas, and thus allow equitable access to basic services like healthcare for even the farthest and remotest of areas.”
He also stated that India is all set to become the drone hub of the world by 2030, and the potential of our innovators is only infinite.
Rao said, “Being at the forefront of leveraging emerging technologies, Telangana has always acted as a testbed for innovative solutions to support scaling across the nation. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted that the healthcare supply chains can be further strengthened, and drones offer a robust value proposition in emergencies.”
Rao also mentioned that the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ is the first of its kind initiative in the country to generate insights that shall benefit the entire ecosystem.
After the successful implementation of the pilot project in the Vikarabad District, the Telangana government is planning to implement it across the State.
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