India’s drone market is growing at a pace we’ve never seen before. Backed by government policies, private innovation, and lessons from global conflicts, the industry has become a key part of India’s defense and commercial strategy.

Let’s walk through the current market size, projected growth, areas of opportunity, and how India stacks up globally.

Market Size of Drones in India 2025

Recent research paints a strong growth picture for India’s drone market. While valuations differ slightly across sources, the upward trend is consistent.

MarketsandMarkets: $654 million in 2024, expected to hit $1,437 million by 2029 at 17% CAGR (source)
Grand View Research: $1,581.5 million in 2024, expected to reach $4,835.9 million by 2030 at 20.4% CAGR (source)
Custom Market Insights (CMI): UAV segment valued at $1,775.5 million in 2024 (source)

Also read: GST cut on drones: What it means for India’s drone industry

Units Registered and Adoption Trends

As of January 29, 2025, India had 29,501 registered drones. Delhi led with 4,882, followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra (thetimesofindia)
Other states with significant registrations: Haryana (3,689), Karnataka (2,516), Telangana (1,928), Gujarat (1,338), Kerala (1,318)

What this means is that:

There is strong but still modest adoption. Growth is building, particularly in agriculture, mapping, surveillance, and logistics.
The decentralized registrations show interest across states, not just in major metros.

Also read: Defence minister Rajnath Singh highlights India’s drone revolution

Military and Defense: India’s Largest Drone Segment

Defense remains the biggest driver of drone adoption in India.

The military drone market was valued at $1,527.1 million in 2024 and is expected to reach $4,082.1 million by 2030 with a CAGR of 17.9%

The key drivers include:

Border surveillance across Pakistan and China frontiers
Counter-terrorism operations in urban zones
Deterrence strategies in regional conflicts

With regional instability, India is accelerating indigenous R&D while also procuring advanced UAVs.

Global Drone Market vs India’s Position

The global drone industry is growing rapidly, and India holds just a fraction of it.

Global drone market: Valued at ₹6,06,398 crore in 2024, projected to reach ₹13,57,880 crore by 2030, at 14.3% CAGR.
India’s share: Valued at ₹5,428 crore in 2024, expected to reach ₹11,927 crore by 2029. It is just 0.9% of the global market.

This gap highlights the massive growth potential if India strengthens manufacturing and R&D.

FPV Drones: A High-Growth Niche

The First-Person View (FPV) drone market is emerging as a hot segment.

Valued at ₹9,960 crore in 2024, projected to reach ₹37,350 crore by 2033, at 15.2% CAGR .

While FPV drones represent just 1.6% of the total market, their use in defense training, racing, and immersive filming is expanding rapidly.

Conflict-Driven Drone Adoption: Lessons for India

In recent years, wars and conflicts have shown how powerful drones can be on the battlefield. From Ukraine to Gaza, drones are no longer just surveillance tools — they are now central to modern warfare. Here’s what’s happening around the world:

Ukraine

In 2024 alone, Ukraine produced over 1 million drones.
The goal for 2025 is even bigger: 2.5 million drones.
Reports suggest that 60–70% of damage to Russian equipment came from drone strikes.

Russia

After lagging behind in 2023, Russia is now scaling up fast.
The country is planning to manufacture 1.4 million drones every year. This is almost 10 times more than its 2023 production.

Israel

Israel has been modifying commercial drones (like those made by DJI) for military use.
These drones are being used for surveillance missions and specialized sniper and kamikaze attacks

Turkey

Turkey has become a leading exporter of military drones.
Its Bayraktar TB2 drones are now used in 30+ countries.
Costing around $2–5 million each, they are far cheaper than Western alternative

What This Means for India

These examples highlight a clear lesson:

Drones are now a decisive weapon in modern warfare.
Countries that can mass-produce affordable, advanced drones gain a huge advantage.
For India, this means building self-reliant drone manufacturing and investing in counter-drone systems is urgent.

Manufacturing Capabilities and Challenges

India’s drone industry is buzzing with startups, but when it comes to advanced production, the country still relies heavily on imports.

Here’s the reality:

The Current Landscape

India has around 515 drone-related companies.
Out of these, 263 focus on making components like batteries, propellers, and software.
Only 3–4 companies have the capability to build military-grade drones

Key Challenges

Despite the growth, India faces big hurdles in self-reliance:

39% of flight controllers (the “brain” of the drone) are imported from China.
For small drones, the dependence is even higher. 90% of flight controllers come from China.
Rare earth magnets, essential for motors, are 100% imported, with no local alternatives yet.

Government Efforts

To reduce import dependence and push local manufacturing, the government has launched a Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme worth ₹230 crore.

The aim is to encourage Indian companies to make high-quality drones and components locally.
This move is also meant to strengthen India’s position in the global supply chain.

At InsideFPV, we are closely aligned with the way India’s defense ecosystem is evolving. Our drones, including Kamikaze UAVs and the Elevate Z1, are designed for real battlefield conditions where speed, accuracy and reliability decide outcomes.

Just as important as the machines themselves is the training that goes with them, which is why we work directly with army personnel to ensure they can operate and adapt drones effectively in live missions.

For defense stakeholders and investors, this combination of indigenous innovation, government support and rising demand points to a sector with enormous growth potential in the years ahead.