'Medicines from the Sky' project: Flipkart partners with Telangana for drone deliveries of medical supplies

"India's homegrown e-commerce platform, Flipkart announced a collaboration with the Telangana government on Friday to lead a consortium tasked with developing and executing the 'Medicines from the Sky' project's drone deliveries of medical supplies to rural places. Flipkart, as a member of the alliance, will use lessons learned from its tech-enabled supply chain to deploy drones and facilitate medical supply deliveries.

"Moreover, these efforts will be supplemented by technology such as geo-mapping, shipment routing, and track and trace of position, among others, created by Flipkart over the years in serving millions of customers across the country, as per the e-commerce giant. The combo of these technologies will then be utilised to make Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) deliveries in remote parts of the state where road infrastructure does not allow for rapid vaccination distribution.

"Moreover, the pilot project, which is planned to last more than 6 days, will be tested for delivering thousands of vaccines while keeping all safety and efficiency requirements in mind.

""The coronavirus crisis has pushed the boundaries in the increasing popularity of scalable and robust technology, and the Medicines from Sky project is proof of that. It is a critical step toward utilising cutting-edge technologies for the safety and well-being of the masses" said Flipkart Senior Vice-President & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Rajneesh Kumar.

""We are delighted to collaborate with the Telangana government to lead the consortium by utilising our in-depth knowledge of supply chain and technology guiding the automated movement of shipments to meet the dire requirements of inhabitants across the state. This pilot will provide the groundwork for the use of drone systems to provide healthcare and goods distribution in distant places, as well as during calamities" he stated.

"Telangana's Principal Secretary, IT and I&C, Jayesh Ranjan, stated that the state has been a pioneer in leveraging technology to improve residents' lives. He said, "using drones to transport medical supplies to people in distant and inaccessible places is a first-of-its-kind effort in our nation, and we are excited to spearhead it in partnership with partners like Flipkart. This will go a long way toward putting best-in-class technological solutions to the test in order to weather future crises."

"The World Economic Forum and Healthnet Global Ltd created the 'Medicines from the Sky' initiative, which specifies the parameters for drone delivery and how to evaluate applications. Telangana's government has chosen this approach in order to utilise drones for last-mile deliveries and integrate them into the state's healthcare supply chain.