New Delhi, Jan 28: Union Dr Jitendra Singh today said that Indian StartUp “Botlab” , funded by Technology Development Board (TDB) under Union Ministry of Science & Technology and led by IIT Delhi alumni, will fly 1,000 drones in “Beating Retreat” ceremony tomorrow evening, as a part of the Light Show marking the conclusion of nearly week long programmes related to Republic Day.

This will make India the fourth country, after China, Russia and UK, to carry out such a large-scale show with 1,000 drones, he informed.

At a demonstration of the drone presentation today, the Minister interacted with the “Botlab” StartUp team members at his residence including Tanmay Bunkar, Sarita Ahlawat, Sujit Rana, Mohit Sharma, Harshit Batra, Kunal Meena and others. The Managing Director and Engineers of Botlab Dynamics Private Limited were visibly excited by the thought of being the first in India to light up the sky with 1,000 Drones, in one go.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Start-Up, Boatlab Dynamics was given an initial seed fund of Rs One crore for R&D by Department of Science & Technology (DST) and subsequently Rs Rs 2.5 crore for scale up and commercialisation by Technology Development Board to develop first of its kind technological project in India. The Minister reiterated the government’s commitment to support more of such innovative and sustainable Start-ups to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making India a Global Hub of Start-up Ecosystem.

Dr Sarita Ahlawat, MD of Boatlab Dynamics said that the Drone Project could become successful only due to full financial support provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology, as Private Sector was reluctant to hand-hold the hardware Start-up. She also thanked the engineers associated with the project for letting go the lucrative MNC offers and owning up the idea.