Drone Delivery: DGCA permits drone testing for food delivery platforms

Technology is taking over human beings and that’s the reason automation is slowly becoming the most sought-after industrial aspect. Manufacturing has cut off human intervention to a certain extent and now it’s the turn of services. Driverless Cars, robots, drones etc. Are replacing humans and we might soon enter a world where their population (and importance) would be way more than human beings. And, this is happening globally.

India is of course following suit and trying to catch up with this trend. So, in the latest development Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has permitted trials of drones for food delivery. Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo have all been given the permission to test BVLOS (Beyond visual line of sight) drones for delivering food. While this might prove to be a game-changer for the industry, this also means that delivery boys might be replaced to a certain extent.

What Does This Mean?

If everything goes as planned, in the near future we will get our food delivered by drones. This would be ‘Contactless Delivery’ in a true sense. All that needs to be done is conduct the tests in designated airspaces and submit the reports. In fact, the Founder of Zomato is quite excited about it and says that drone aided delivery is almost here and it’s no longer a pipe dream.

If this goes through, then there would be many advantages such as contactless delivery without any human being involved (With the fear of Coronavirus spreading through touch, this would be really helpful) and of course speedy delivery.Since drones will not have to face traffic congestions on roads, they would deliver the food much faster as compared to delivery boys. But, if we see the other side of the coin, this step would take away jobs of delivery boys. Unemployment is a serious issue in our country and the Covid-19 crisis has made things worse.

The effect of the pandemic posed economic hindrance due to which jobs were further lost. Currently, around one-fourth of the country is unemployed. And, if automation results in job losses instead of creating new jobs then, we will have to re-think where we are heading. A balance needs to be struck between technology and human intervention. However, one can not deny the fact that with technology there’s much lesser chance of causing errors.

Axis Bank Limited 

Axis Bank, the third largest bank in India, has begun its operations in 1994. It provides a broad range of financial services to all consumer segments covering large and mid corporates, MSMEs, agriculture, and retail business. It has a multichannel presence across India with its vast distribution network of 4,258 domestic branches, 12,044 ATMs, 4,917 cash recyclers, and other customer touchpoints such as mobile banking, internet banking, SMS banking, point of sale (5 lakh+), and call center etc.

The firm is committed in garnering trust by helping its customers meet their financial goals at Axis as one-stop-shop following its ‘One Axis’ ideology (One that can offer a comprehensive suite of products, services, and solutions). It has a continuous focus on normalising credit risk, enhancing capabilities, and delivering profitable growth.

It was one of the early movers to implement digital technologies to provide a better experience to its large customer base of more than 25.1 million of which 66% are digitally active. Its strong digital presence helped in offering a wide range of financial solutions to its customers spread from the bottom of the pyramid to the big multinational corporations. Retail banking continues to be a key driver of its growth strategy.