C-DOT Inks Pact With Trois Infotech To Boost Drone Ecosystem

The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the telecom research and development arm of the Department of Telecommunications, has inked a pact with deeptech startup Trois Infotech to boost drone technology development and indigenisation in the drone ecosystem.

As per the agreement, the Thiruvanthapuram-based startup will manufacture drones designed for aerial surveillance, that will have applications across traffic management, emergency response, defence and environmental monitoring.

These drones will be equipped with industrial-grade, long-range cameras for facial recognition, high accuracy edge processing for uninterrupted 4G, 5G and long-range WiFi connection and low-powered AI for real-time data processing.

“The drones will leverage cutting-edge computer vision and AI technologies to address challenges such as camera and target movement, low-light conditions, and power constraints,” a notification by the ministry of communications read.

The agreement has been signed under the Telecom Technology Development Fund, which is a subset of DoT’s Universal Service Obligation Fund scheme. 

Launched in 2022, the scheme aims to fund homegrown startups, academia and R&D institutions involved in design, development and commercialisation of telecommunications products and services.

The goal is to bridge the digital divide by developing and manufacturing telecommunications products and solutions to enable affordable broadband and mobile services in rural and remote areas.

Founded in 2018 by Jithesh T and Regil Raghavan, Trois Infotech offers artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, smart surveillance, enterprise web and mobile technology solutions, designed for the telecommunications sector.

It also operates in the cleantech domain, and offers an enterprise waste management product capable of tracking and monitoring the entire waste management process with role-based web and mobile applications.

Besides India, the startup also has a presence in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

The development comes at a time when Indian startups operating in the deeptech sector are facing a funding crunch. India is currently home to over 400 deeptech startups which cumulatively raised $496 Mn in 2023 compared to $397 Mn in 2022, according to Inc42 data.

A key reason behind the decline in funding for deeptech startups is that India’s venture capitalists and fund managers are rewarding business and commercial models instead of innovation itself.

However, to its credit, the government has taken a slew of initiatives over the past few months to spur innovation in sunrise sectors including AI, semiconductor, spacetech, among others.

Earlier it was reported that the Centre was planning to introduce a deeptech startup policy to offer long-term funds for companies operating in the sector.

In her interim budget speech, Sitharaman also announced a corpus of INR 1 Lakh Cr to provide 50-year interest-free loans for research and development in the sunrise sectors.