Maharashtra is betting big on unmanned aerial systems. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis chaired a high-level meeting with drone manufacturers at Sahyadri Guest House, Mumbai, on Thursday, 13 August 2026, and emerged with a clear signal: the state intends to become India's premier drone manufacturing hub — and it is restructuring its policy architecture to get there.

A Task Force to Cut Through the Red Tape

The centrepiece announcement from the meeting is the formation of a dedicated task force under Minister Ashish Shelar. Its mandate is threefold: ensure effective implementation of the Maharashtra Unmanned Aerial Systems Policy, carry information about available schemes directly to entrepreneurs, and resolve industry grievances without delay. The creation of a ministerial-level body signals that the state is treating drone manufacturing as a priority sector that warrants direct political accountability — not just bureaucratic oversight.

CM Fadnavis also directed officials to explore financial support for testing costs incurred by existing companies until dedicated laboratory and testing infrastructure comes online — a pragmatic acknowledgement that policy ambition and ground reality rarely move at the same speed.

One Policy to Rule Them All: The 'Policy of Policies' Push

A recurring theme at the meeting was fragmentation. Maharashtra already has provisions spread across multiple policies covering research and development, indigenous component manufacturing, testing, patents, and subsidies. Fadnavis directed that these be consolidated into a single, unified framework — what he described as a 'पॉलिसी ऑफ पॉलिसीज' ('Policy of Policies') — so that drone entrepreneurs can access the full stack of benefits without navigating a maze of separate schemes. The Chief Minister noted that Maharashtra's drone policy is already stronger than those of comparable states, but consolidation is the next frontier.

He also directed that financial provisions for research across various policies be made available in a pooled, accessible manner, ensuring that a single entrepreneur working on R&D and testing can draw from multiple funding streams simultaneously rather than applying piecemeal.

Drone City at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: From Blueprint to Urgency

The meeting gave fresh momentum to one of Maharashtra's most ambitious drone-sector projects: a dedicated 'Drone City' within the Industrial City zone at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Fadnavis directed that work on developing this cluster be accelerated. The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has been tasked with working out a special incentive policy for land allocation to drone industry units over the next two to three years — a time-bound push that ties land access to a concrete planning horizon.

The broader vision is to build out testing ranges and patent-cost support alongside the physical cluster, so that companies locating in Drone City have an end-to-end infrastructure ecosystem rather than a plot of land and little else.

Existing Players First, New Investors Second

One of the sharper directives from the CM was a reminder against a common policy trap: in the race to attract new investment, states often neglect the companies already operating within their borders. Fadnavis explicitly instructed that strengthening the existing drone ecosystem must take priority, and that current players must not be overlooked in favour of headline-grabbing new entrants. It is a signal to incumbents that their loyalty to Maharashtra will be rewarded with policy support — not just rhetoric.

India's central government laid the groundwork with liberalised Drone Rules in 2021 and a Production Linked Incentive scheme for indigenous drone manufacturing. Maharashtra's task force, Drone City, and 'Policy of Policies' are the state-level architecture meant to capture that national momentum and convert it into jobs, patents, and export-ready hardware. The next move belongs to Minister Shelar's task force — and the clock is already running.