Cognizant signs MoU with Garuda Aerospace to fit advanced tech, analytics on drones

Information technology (IT) firm Cognizant has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chennai-based drone startup, Garuda Aerospace to fit advanced digital capabilities on its drones. 

The partnership aims at bringing innovative solutions at scale for enterprises looking to achieve greater agility, productivity, and high return on investment (RoI).  

“Drone services are one of the fastest growing technology segments with the potential to provide extraordinary value to industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, energy and utilities, retail and logistics,” Achal Kataria, Vice President and India Country Head, Cognizant said in a statement.  

Cognizant and Garuda Aerospace are collectively targeting a plethora of end-to-end drone-based management and monitoring offerings for businesses across sectors. Both companies believe that the collaboration will help scale up business and propel growth.

For example, in the agriculture sector, a new offering provides intelligent water and soil management, crop spraying, aerial planting, among others. For energy and utilities, an aerial intelligence solution helps in asset inspection, storm impact assessment, fire safety, among other operational areas. And, in warehouse management, the drones can be used for inventory audit, tracking of products, video surveillance, and even help move lightweight objects, and so on.  

“This collaboration with Cognizant will further enhance our ‘Made in India’ drones with world-class technologies and catalyse new, innovative solutions to help clients and their customers around the world,” said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO, Garuda Aerospace.  

Garuda Aerospace boasts a fleet of 400 drones and a well-trained team of over 500 pilots in 26 cities across the country. This September, it has received approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as an official remote pilot training organisation (RPTO). This makes Garuda the 31st RPTO of India to have been approved since the union government liberalised drone regulations on August 26, last year. Earlier this month, the Chennai start-up also launched a ‘drone yatra’ to educate and demonstrate drone’s efficacy among farmers. 

The collaboration will provide Cognizant associates across its service lines, including, analytics, IoT, among others, the opportunity to work on such purpose-driven drone projects and real-life use cases. Additionally, associates keen to be trained as drone pilots will have access to Garuda Aerospace’s training facilities, the company said.