In a bid to speed up the development of drones in India, Japan-based Terra Drone Corporation, Terra Drone India and the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, on Thursday announced that they have signed a pact to establish a first-of-its-kind Centre of Excellence for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in India.

According to the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the centre will be set up at IIT Hyderabad.

"We are creating a unique educational ecosystem that combines interactive learning with cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration and entrepreneurship," said Dr UB Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad.

"We are excited about developing drone-based solutions for domains like 5G communication, agriculture, transportation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), said Desai.

With its presence in six continents and more than 20 countries, Terra Drone Corporation is one of the world's largest providers of industrial drone solutions.

The company is at the forefront of several innovations in the aviation industry, including promoting the application of AI technologies in drones and providing advisory services to the ongoing 'flying car' project in Japan.

"As the world's fastest-growing major economy, the potential for commercial drone market in India is huge," noted Toru Tokushige, CEO, Terra Drone Corporation.

Part of the Terra Drone Group, Terra Drone India offers a complete sales-service-support module for the drone ecosystem in India.

"The UAV ecosystem in India is rapidly evolving and drones are set to become an integral part of future working environments in several industries," said Prateek Srivastava, CEO, Terra Drone India.

Terra Drone will support IIT Hyderabad to organise workshops, seminars, lectures and joint projects that leverage cutting-edge unmanned technologies and drone LiDAR systems.

Terra Drone India would also offer internship programmes to talented students and prepare them for real-world technology applications.