Industrialization, Emancipation, Indian Startups & Drone
Connecting the dots and exploring the market opportunity for Drones
Fact Check!
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Global Business Summit GBS, 2019 declared that “India might have missed the bus of first three revolutions but we are going to drive the bus of Industrialisation 4.0.”
At the same conference Oliver Tonby, Chairman, McKinsey (Asia) added, “it (Industrialization 4.0) has also created a lot of turbulence.”
Turbulence in the form of shrinking of jobs! He stood correct in his opinion, as a country like India where each year millions of people enter the job market Industrialization 4.0 (from digitalization to automation) will probably result in a sudden increase in the unemployment rate.
Did I shout Industrialization is a True Emancipator?
History reports that the word emancipator has a Latin familia emancipatus, first used in the 1620s, meaning “set free from control.” Until later with the coming of industrialization in the mid 18th century, the word didn’t context slaves in its meaning.
To further explore the subtle hint of the connection between a word and an era, I seed my intent in the coming paragraphs.
Pranjal Sharma an economic analyst and advisor, in his book Kranti Nation: India and The Fouth Industrialization stresses upon how the roots of emerging technologies like advanced Robotics and neuroscience, AI, Internet of Things (IoT) are manifesting in different business structures in India.
The Sanskrit word “Kranti” in the title means revolution. Pankaj has contextualized the meaning in Indian Independence but filters it further with the adoption of New Technology in building New India with the “Kranti” of knowledge and research. Its adoption in business structures will hasten India’s journey in becoming one of the 1st world countries. (That is the 1st point of connection, Emancipation through Industrializational “Kranti/revolution”)
Please allow me to correct myself now, “Industrialization 4.0 is the true emancipator for the countries like India!”
Is Industrialisation 4.0 really an emancipator or a job eat-er?
If we are to believe Oliver Tonby; startups will play The Hero amongst the turbulence, “startups will have to be part of a larger ecosystem and that’s how it would create jobs of the future.”
Startups: The Savior of the 3rd World & Hero of the Drone Tale!
The evolving startup ecosystem in India is recruiting emerging technologies to seek solution building opportunity. Also, it is simultaneously creating an urgent need for young adults to upskill themselves in order to stay employed in the fast pacing industry requirements.
Meanwhile, startups are generating new job opportunities that do not restrict people to have formal education in a particular stream of knowledge. One such emerging market in India is Drone technology, where almost 50 startups have boomed and started serving different industries (Construction, City planning, Mining, Transmission & utilities, Forestry, etc.) already. Some have taken a step forward into exploring technology integration with artificial intelligence, machine learning, data processing and many more.
Drone Market Opportunity in India
The Indian drone market is at the nascent stage but it promises potential for immense growth in coming years considering the ongoing speculations on rules and regulation over its commercial usage. Drone usage in India also depends on the thrust given by Indian Government to adopt drones in the operations for heavy industry projects, for instance, surveillance of big construction projects for Highways and Railways which will push the value of the domestic industry to approximately US$421 million by 2021-23. According to 6Wresearch, the Indian Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 18% during 2017–2324.
Major Drone Startups in India
Sandeep Singh of Inc42 Media has published an insightful report where he covers major Drone Startups under the head “Flying On Low: 15 Drone Startups in India That Are Soaring Despite Lack Of Investments.”
World Drone Market
From Steam to Science to the age of Digitalization, Industrialization has stepped up its game now to the age of Automation. We’ve entered Industrialization 4.0. And Startups are making way for the jobs of the future.
