JK Organisation announces foray into domestic drone market

Diversified group JK Organisation today announced its foray into India's drone market in partnership with Canadian firm MicroPilot.

The USD 4 billion group through its company Deepti Electronics & Electro Optics Pvt Ltd (DELOPT) has joined hands with MicroPilot during the ongoing aero show in Bengaluru to capitalize on the ever increasing market of UAVs in India, JK Organisation said in a statement.

The group is looking to tap the approximately Rs 2,000 crore Indian UAV market, which is expected to grow at least three-fold in the next five years, it added.

"Drones definitely have a big market here and while the defence wings and the state police have already identified its utility in terms of surveillance and monitoring, these flying robots are high on the wish list of agricultural department and entities involved in disaster management," said Rajesh Kakkar, Director DELOPT.

The JK Group has been focusing in the defence sector and providing electronic and digital solutions to the armed forces. It has been aggressively turning attention in the UAV and avionics segment, the statement added.

The partnership will look to seek synergies from the capabilities of the two partners.

MicroPilot offers a family of lightweight UAV autopilots that fly fixed-wing, transitional, helicopter, and multi-rotor UAVs.

It has also developed a full line of autopilot accessories, including compass module, analog-to-digital converter, ultrasonic altitude sensor, configuration wizard, data modems and software developer's kit.

DELOPT, a defence electronics R&D company, on the other hand has been catering to DRDO labs and DPSUs on prestigious projects like LCA, MBT, Indian Navy's communication network, torpedoes and missile platforms.