FLY AND DELIVER DELIVERY
DRONES HOLD A LOT OF PROMISE FOR BOTH URBAN INDIA AND THE RURAL HINTERLAND
By AJAY SUKUMARAN
In 2013, when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos first spoke of plans to deliver packages using drones, he insisted that it wasn't science fiction. In December last year, the e-commerce giant announced its first drone deliveries, although these were on a small scale, catering to only two towns in the US. In just a decade, however, delivery by drone has gone from being an idea up in the air to something that could transform the world of logistics. The American firm Zipline, for instance, says its drones have clocked over 700,000 deliveries ferrying 7.33 million items, making it the world's largest drone logistics company. Founded in 2014, Zipline started by delivering blood and medical products in Rwanda in 2016 before expanding to food, retail, agricultural and animal health products. Then, just this month, the UK's Royal Mail announced a daily mail distribution service by drone to some remote islands off Scotland.
WHY IT IS A GAME CHANGER
In India, a number of trials have been conducted by various players-food delivery start-up. Swiggy, Tata Img for medicine delivery and India Post among others. In fact, the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a test bed for drone applications such as the delivery of medicines and vaccines to remote locations in the country during lockdowns.
Drones too have come a long way. A decade ago, drones for civilian applications were expected to remain airborne for a maximum of six minutes before the battery ran out. Now, the basic norm is 45 minutes. Drones that are deployed for surveying or mapping can stay up for two hours. That makes delivery drones the next big thing.
WHAT INDIA NEEDS TO MASTER
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