HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Sept 14: Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu took to X to announce that the state has delivered over 12,000 medical supplies across the region under the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ initiative on Saturday.
Expressing his delight over the achievement, Khandu wrote, “In line with the vision of Honourable PM Shri @narendramodi Ji to make India a drone hub, we launched the ‘Medicine from Sky’ initiative on August 15, 2022, as a pilot project from Seppa to Chayang Tajo.”
According to a report by the World Economic Forum, the initiative has delivered over 12,000 medical supplies in the state. In doing so, it has also saved over 15,000 hours of land travel time.
CM Khandu further wrote, “The scheme has successfully delivered thousands of life-saving medicines across the challenging terrains of Arunachal Pradesh. Heartening to see that our initiative has received praise from the World Economic Forum.”
Notably, the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ initiative was launched by the government of Arunachal Pradesh in 2022 with the mission of using drones to modernize services and initiatives to make India the world’s Drone Hub.
The project entails using drones manufactured in India to deliver medications to primary healthcare facilities in remote areas. The purpose is to analyze how the state’s healthcare system responds when drones are used in combination with it, as well as to chronicle how drone-based supply chains are incorporated into the state’s remote health services.
On August 15, 2022, as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration, the first pilot project of ‘Medicine from the Sky,’ a flagship initiative of the Arunachal Pradesh government and the World Economic Forum, was successfully launched from Seppa to Chayang Tajo in East Kameng District.
The project was funded by USAID and carried out by Bengaluru-based startup Redwing Labs, with the financial and technical assistance of the SAMRIDH Healthcare Blended Financing Facility.
The initiative is only the start of India’s vision of transforming the country into a drone hub. With the passage of the success story across the country, more and more ventures would be inspired to up their drone game in the near future.
