BSE Fines DroneAcharya For Delay In Submission Of Financials

The BSE has slapped a fine on Pune-based drone startup DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations for delay in submission of the financial statements for the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24).

In an exchange filing, the startup said that the BSE imposed a fine of INR 5,900 on it for the delay in submission of standalone and consolidated financial results for FY24. 

DroneAcharya reported its financial results for FY24 on May 31 this year. It is pertinent to note that the startup’s board was scheduled to discuss and approve the standalone and consolidated financial statements for FY24 on May 29 this year. While the board did meet on May 29, DroneAcharya informed the exchange that the meeting would be continued on May 30 to consider the results.

Post the meeting on May 30, the startup submitted to the exchange a statement highlighting some of the numbers for FY24 but did not submit the profit and loss statement.

The complete financial statement was provided to the exchange only on May 31.

DroneAcharya’s consolidated profit after tax (PAT) almost double to INR 6.2 Cr in FY24 from INR 3.4 Cr in the previous year. Operating revenue surged 90% year-on-year to INR 35.19 Cr

Founded by Prateek Srivastava in 2017, DroneAcharya offers an array of drone solutions for multi-sensor drone surveys, pilot training, and data processing, among others. The startup forayed into drone manufacturing last year. 

Its shares listed on the BSE SME platform at INR 102 apiece, almost a premium of 90% to the issue price, in December 2022. Shares of the startup ended Wednesday’s (July 3) trading session 3.1% higher at INR 146.30.

Earlier this year, investor Shankar Sharma offloaded 2 Lakh shares, or a 0.83% stake, of the drone startup via a block deal.

Meanwhile, DroneAcharya has bagged a number of new contracts in the last few months. 

Last month, it received INR 2.59 Lakh service order from Maani Care System (India), an entity associated with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), to provide a drone pilot training course to individuals recommended by the Air Surveillance team of RIL.

In May, it won a work order of INR 53 Lakh from Alter Dynamics & Artificial Intelligence. Prior to that, it received an order from the Ministry of Defence to supply IT hardware for a drone lab in Jammu and Kashmir.