Multinational information technology services and consulting company Cognizant has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Garuda Aerospace, an Indian drone start-up, to power its drones with advanced digital tools.

According to the Times of India, Cognizant says this will bring innovative solutions at scale for enterprises aiming to achieve greater agility, productivity and overall outcomes.

The two companies aim to bring a wide range of end-to-end drone-based management and monitoring offerings for businesses across a number of sectors, including agriculture, warehouse management, and energy and utilities.

This collaboration will also offer Cognizant associates across such company service lines as analytics and IoT the opportunity to work on purpose-driven drone projects.

Garuda Aerospace is focused on developing low-cost drone solutions to optimize industries through accurate data. It describes itself as a drone-as-a-software aggregator that designs impeccable drones for myriad human and industrial needs.

Indian press reports suggest that Garuda Aerospace boasts a fleet of 400 drones and a well-trained team of over 500 pilots in 26 cities across the country.

It’s also a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme beneficiary. We reported in April that a number of companies involved in manufacturing drones and drone components had been selected as initial beneficiaries of the PLI scheme to boost drone manufacturing in India. The list, expanded in July, included 23 beneficiaries, one of which was Garuda Aerospace.

This year has seen growing activity in the drone sector. For example, in March we reported that Asteria Aerospace, an India-based drone manufacturer and solution provider and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd, had launched an end-to-end drone operations platform.