MeitY Launches NIDAR 2.0 to Advance Indigenous Drone Technology

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has launched NIDAR 2.0, a national innovation challenge encouraging students to develop indigenous drone technologies, autonomous systems and AI-powered drone intelligence using India's homegrown VEGA processor. The programme, run with the Drone Federation India under the SwaYaan initiative, builds on the first edition which attracted 3,448 students and awarded Rs 40 lakh in prizes. If you're building drone autonomy or avionics, India just created a pipeline of 3,400+ trained engineers who've designed on indigenous silicon - and the government will fund their prototypes. Winning designs from this cohort become government-backed proof points for your first customers in defence and agriculture.