ideaForge, C-DAC to advance India’s drone-led emergency response

ideaForge Technology Limited, an Indian manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems, has announced the signing of a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to strengthen drone-led emergency response across India and jointly advance research in next-generation UAV, semiconductor and data-driven technologies.

The partnership brings together ideaForge’s FLYGHT platform, a ready-to-deploy, on-demand drone network delivered through a Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) model, with C-DAC’s Emergency Response Support System (ERSS–Dial 112), which enables anyone to access emergency services such as police, fire or medical assistance through a single nationwide emergency number, according to a media release. 

ideaForge’s FLYGHT platform allows agencies to access drone capability without owning hardware, managing software, or training specialised manpower, making scalable adoption easier for States and public safety departments. FLYGHT is also used in urban environments for emergency response, traffic monitoring, asset inspection, mapping, sanitation inspection, urban disaster assessment, and infrastructure security.  

The MoU also establishes a broad framework for collaborative innovation between ideaForge and C-DAC across deep-tech and UAV domains. This includes the evaluation and potential integration of the indigenous VEGA processor into ideaForge’s UAV platforms, exploration of VEGA-based system-on-chip (SoC) architectures for flight control systems, and joint research into autonomous swarm drones leveraging AI and advanced computing, the media release said.  

“Unmanned aerial systems are becoming central to how India manages security, governance and emergency operations,” Sachin Pukale, AGM, Product Management ideaForge, said. “Integrating FLYGHT with ERSS will allow Automated Aerial Dispatch of drones to reach incidents within minutes and provide critical situational awareness intelligence to responders on the ground.”   

“Our collaboration with ideaForge opens new opportunities to harness drone-generated data for faster decision-making, especially in emergency response scenarios,” C-DAC said. “Through this MoU, we aim to jointly develop frameworks that ensure drone data is efficiently processed, analysed and safeguarded while enabling advanced applications such as autonomous operations, AI-led analytics and real-time situational awareness.