Raj Kumar Srivastava Exits DroneAcharya Board

Raj Kumar Srivastava, an independent director at DroneAcharya, has resigned from the dronetech startup’s board to “fulfil other professional responsibilities”.

This comes close to two months after DroneAcharya’s company secretary and compliance officer Harshal J. Kher resigned from his position. Back then, Kher wrote in his resignation letter that he was resigning to “pursue opportunities for professional growth and development”.

Meanwhile, in an exchange filing, the company said that Srivastava put down his papers on March 18 and will continue to serve his notice period till the end of this month.

“ …we hereby inform you that Mr. Raj Kumar Srivastava, independent director of the company vide e-mail dated March 18, 2025 has tendered his resignation from the position of independent director,” the filing said.

This also marks an end to Srivastava’s one-year stint with the company. Currently, he is also serving as the head for nature-based solutions at Iora Ecological Solutions. Additionally, he had worked with the Karnataka government, serving at its forest, electronic and science and technology departments for more than a decade. 

Founded by Prateek Srivastava and Amit Takte in 2017, Pune-based DroneAcharya is a drone and data-based solution provider which offers solutions, including multi-sensor drone surveys, pilot training and data processing. The company got listed on the public market in 2022, at a premium price of almost 90% to its issue price of INR 54 apiece. 

Last week, DroneAcharya bagged an INR 46.25 Lakh project from consulting firm EY to focus on advanced drone training in Nepal under a six-month project called “Nepal drone ecosystem acceleration program”.

The project, which was floated by the World Bank, aims to accelerate the adoption of drone technology in Nepal for critical applications such as infrastructure development, disaster management, security, and precision agriculture, the company said in an exchange filing then.

Also, last month, DroneAcharya bagged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) type certification for its multipurpose drone, AgriVeer.

In January, the company signed a merger agreement with agri-drone company AITMC Ventures to expand its solution suite for the customers. At that time, it also secured a contract from the defence ministry to provide drone-centric training courses for 8 army officials. 

On the financial front, DroneAcharya’s consolidated profit after tax (PAT) dropped 62.1% to INR 1.50 Cr during the six months ended September 2024 (H1 FY25), against INR 3.96 Cr during the same period in the previous fiscal.

The shares of the company ended today’s trading session on the BSE at INR 64.73 apiece, up 5% from its previous close at INR 61.55.