In September 2021, after intergovernmental collaboration and detailed policy revisions, the 45-day trial of Medicine from the Sky finally took shape.
The Medicine from the Sky programme in India was commissioned at the India Economic Summit in 2019 under the chairmanship of K. T. Rama Rao, Telangana’s Minister for Information Technology, Industries & Commerce, and Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD), and Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary to Telangana Government, Information Technology, Electronics and Communications (ITE&C) and Industries & Commerce (I&C). The programme was aimed at using drone technology to extend urban-grade healthcare to the remotest areas and ensure that “nobody is left behind”. Since a number of stakeholders had a secondary view of the technology and only a limited perception of its benefits, one of the goals was to measure programming and confidence-building in the ecosystem.
The focus was on three fronts:
1.Technology – Overall maturity of the technology and its capacity to withstand the conditions of the last mile, especially in remote areas.
2.Policy – Alignment with policy-makers in articulating the case that drones can be operated safely and securely for social impact.
3.Community – Alignment with members of the community, especially beneficiaries (rural citizens), consumers (healthcare workers), implementers, experts and decision-makers, when strategizing for a seamless drone delivery programme.
