Drone Shakti - (E)
India was mesmerised by a game of colourful drones that played out over the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi as part of the 73 rd Republic Day celebrations. In a break from tradition the Beating Retreat ceremony held at Vijay Chowk in the heart of New Delhi saw the infusion of high technology in the mostly martial ceremony, India’s 'Drone Shakti’ was on full display. More than a thousand drones lit up the sky over Raisina Hill on January 29, 2022. The nano-drones that carried out formation flying were all `Made in India’. The dance of the drones was choreographed by a start-up BotLab Dynamics Private Limited, housed in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and incubated by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The drones took off from the forecourt of the Rastrapati Bhawan and gave a nearly ten minute thrilling performance lighting the evening sky with India’s flag; the `Make in India Lion’; a figure of Mahatma Gandhi and also India’s map. A behind the scenes look at what went into the making of this spectacular technology driven show. This was friendly flying of a swarm of drones, the same engineers can also make swarm of drones that can be hostile to the enemy. India unleashed the drone technology from the shackles of over-regulation by recently releasing a new drone policy that eases the flying of drones. Today drones are not only delivering Covid-19 vaccines but also helping in agriculture. But the big use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles is in warfare where armed drones can strike at the enemy unseen, unheard with stealth and the drone operator could well be sitting thousands of kilometers away in safe surroundings. BotLab also works on military grade drones.
