How one Indian drone company is capitalizing on export, import bans

Between the Chinese government’s own export controls of its drones coupled with the Indian government’s own ban on imported drones, the recent months have been a whirlwind for where drones can (and increasingly likely cannot) be shipped. And one Indian drone company, Garuda Aerospace, has been setting itself to capitalize on all of it.

Garuda Aerospace spoken this month that it would be partnering with five major international drone companies as a distributor — enabling it to sell products made by those companies to other clients within India. And with some of those companies, Garuda is functioning as increasingly than just a distributor, extending all the way into roles such as scaling from research and minutiae or turnout to full manufacturing of those company’s drones and related products in India.

The five companies that Garuda spoken partnerships in August 2023 with span the U.S., Canada, Israel and Europe. They build drones for use cases ranging from monitoring the condition of state infrastructure, ensuring roads and bridges are synthetic equal to plan and yield spraying, to emergency response and deployment of anti-drone cyber security solutions. Those companies are:

• Aero Sentinel: Aero Sentinel is a military drones manufacturer in Israel that specializes in surveillance military drones, quadcopters and ground tenancy systems for military and police use. (Based in Israel)
• Azur Drones: Azur develops drone-in-a-box solutions without remote pilots designed for surveillance and inspection of sensitive and ramified environments. (Based in Mérignac, France)
• Easy Aerial: Easy Aerial develops and manufactures voluntary and remotely operated military-grade drone-in-a-box solutions.  (Based in Brooklyn, New York)
• Securiton: Securiton Germany builds drone detection solutions designed to classify, verify and repel remote-controlled drones, as well as drones flying autonomously over waypoints. (Based in Achern, Germany)
• Titan Innovations: Titan Innovations builds specialized, fully integrated unmanned systems tailor-made for its customers. (Based in Israel)

While Garuda, which is based in Chennai and founded in 2016, spoken partnerships with those five companies this month, the visitor said it intends to grow its portfolio of partners.

“We squint at the market needs and trends and find partners whose technology will help fill those needs,” said Bruno Escojido, Global Throne of Strategic Partnerships at Garuda Aerospace. “Additionally, sometimes we will have a vendee with particular demands, and we will segregate a partner to work with based on their worthiness to create a solution for that client.”  

Most of the Garuda partnerships fall into four categories:

• Distribution of the other company’s product
• Modification of products from partner companies to support specific Garuda consumer needs
• Manufacturing, research & minutiae of the partner’s product
• Integration of partner products into Garuda’s own products

Escojido moreover said that Garuda works with companies in the counter-drone sector using a similar merchantry model. Though its drones are not exclusively for military and commercial use, as it has clients within the enterprise, government, commercial, and military sectors. It moreover sells small (under 250 gram) drones with cameras for the consumer market. 

What is the impact of India’s ban on importing drones?

India’s government in February 2022 imposed an import ban on drones with only a few exceptions for use cases such as defense, security, and research and development.

Unlike the U.S. ban on DJI drones which applies only for commercial use, the Indian government has an outright ban on DJI drones applying to consumer drones as well. In short, it’s a far increasingly wide-stretching ban than what the U.S. government has imposed.

As of February 2022 (when the import rule went into effect), nearly 70% of drones used in India were unscientific to have come from China, equal to Gautam Vohra, vice-president and merchantry throne for telecom and engineering staffing at TeamLease Services. DJI previously supplied drones for an variety of Indian companies servicing the agricultural, construction, security, emergency response and defense sectors, among others. 

India’s ban on importing foreign drones has been positioned by government leaders as a move to uplift the country’s own tech sector and encourage its people to buy products made in India. There are moreover likely strong political motivations.

“Garuda Aerospace has met this rencontre with an impressive exhibit of foresight, penning partnerships designed to fill the void left by DJI and build on the momentum garnered by this rapidly growing market,” equal to a statement from Garuda.

Does this requite Indian businesses a leg up in their own country?

For Garuda, the wordplay seems to be yes, as it appears ready to dominate the Indian drone market with its robust portfolio of partnerships with non-Chinese companies.

“Our mission is to be a one-stop shop for all things drones,” Escojido said. “We unzip that through increasingly distribution partnerships, manufacturing partnerships, and modifying models.”

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