Volar Alta at Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 : Ready to take the next big leap

Volar Alta is honored to have attended India's biggest Drone Festival - Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022, in the esteemed presence of the country’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. Our company’s founder, Niharika Kolte, was invited by the Drone Federation of India to speak at the two-day festival and share with the world her thoughts on cross-generational diversity in entrepreneurship and the future of drone technology.

As Volar Alta steadily takes steps toward becoming a pioneer in drone-based inspection and deliveries, we believe an event like this is a game-changer for bringing all the stakeholders together and starting discussions about UAVs on the national level. Over 70 exhibitors displayed various use cases of drones during this festival. Various government officials, armed force members, police forces, diplomats, drone startups, and leaders took active participation in the event to boost the indigenous manufacturing of drones and usage - a vision that makes our whole team work passionately each day.

There is already increased interest in the industry due to the central government’s liberalization of drone policy last year. In addition, recently released policies, Drone Shakti and Kisan Drone, too have encouraged companies like ours to find the right opportunities and accelerate growth.

Paving news paths and strengthening hopes for the entire drone industry, PM Modi during the inauguration, said, "The enthusiasm that is being seen in India regarding drone technology is amazing. This energy is visible, it is a reflection of the quantum jump in the drone service and drone-based industry in India. It shows the possibilities of an emerging large sector of employment generation in India.”

He also emphasized that the usage of drones will increase in disaster management and agriculture industries in the coming time. At Volar Alta, we have already been working with governments and companies to conduct various kinds of advanced inspections that are otherwise time-consuming and manual. Our technology is constantly integrating AI and ML tools to facilitate predictive maintenance for different industries. With our patented technology, we also aim to make the transport of critical medical essentials fast, easy and cheap.

Our founder on the future of the drone industry

While speaking in a panel discussion organized by the Drone Federation of India and hosted by Poonam Gupta, Niharika shared that she always felt a drone is a beautiful tool with the potential to reduce the turnaround time and costs and indirectly add to the top line of industrial clients. She believes that drone technology is impactful in creating more jobs and potentially saving lives.

She added, “The future of this technology is bright and this market is such that it will offer something or the other to everyone. Just like our name suggests, we can't wait to fly high.”

During the festival, Union Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the drone industry will reach ₹15,000 crore turnover by the year 2026. This estimation gives our whole team a new motivation to serve our customers better and enhance our technology even further in the coming days. At Volar Alta, the whole team is indeed eager to fly high.

New avenues through the festival

We at Volar Alta feel reassured after attending Drone Festival 2022 and seeing the Honorable Prime Minister personally being invested in the growth of the drone industry in India.

Niharika believes that clear directives from the PM to the other ministries to incorporate drone technology will definitely push the industry a few steps forward to become the global drone hub by 2030.

Our team felt excited after meeting other drone companies and listening to their diverse experiences and plans for future innovation. We sense many avenues will open in the coming months.

We also believe collaboration is the only way forward to achieve collective growth and revolution.

Our founder on women leadership and cross-generation diversity

Upon being asked about cross-generational Diversity during the panel discussion, Niharika said, “I have consciously tried to make a truly diverse team at Volar Alta. We have teammates and advisors who come from different age brackets, backgrounds, and experiences. This ensures a beautiful melange of the human differences and perspectives, leading to much better decision making.”

Giving the example of phenomenal women in leadership such as Indra Nooyi and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Niharika added that all these women have fought their way through the various biases.

“(They’ve) shown the rest of us that as long as you have the competence and the grit to challenge the status quo and stand your ground, gender will never come in the way of your success.”

Niharika also urged women and especially young girls to explore the drone industry and contribute.

“We still don’t see women pilots. I would urge girls to explore this as a career option as well,” she added.