Bengaluru: Using technology at a time like the ongoing pandemic can go a long way in alleviating a lot of miseries and make the lives of citizens better. 

Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh launched a drone operation for public dissemination, sanitization and medicine delivery operations on trial basis with three different drones in Varanasi. 

"The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched the drone operation in Varanasi. We will be using three different drones for three different purposes," Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Managing Director of city-based Garuda Aerospace, told IANS.

Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation granted permission to Telangana government to use drones to deliver covid-19 vaccines: 

It might also be noted that late last month, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had granted permission to the Telangana government to use drones to deliver covid-19 vaccines. 

The experimental delivery of Covid-19 vaccines would take place within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) Range using drones. The permission exemption is valid for a period of one year or until further orders, reports had suggested then. 

These trials, a statement from the ministry of Civil Aviation adds, had said that they would also assist in assessing conditions such as population, degree of isolation, geography etc to identify regions that specifically require drone deliveries.

Earlier that month, similar permission was granted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting feasibility study of Covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones in collaboration with IIT Kanpur.

The grant of these permissions is intended to achieve the dual objectives of faster vaccine delivery & improved healthcare access by:

In simple terms, such a delivery will help augment the medical supply chain. We should also keep in mind that India will have more vaccines coming soon and millions of doses will be transported across India.