A spectacular drone show illuminated the sky today during the Beating the Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk in the national capital as part of the country's 73rd Republic Day celebrations.

The event was graced by President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh among other dignitaries.

The entry band was Massed Band playing the 'Veer Sainik' tune. This was followed by Pipes and Drums Band, CAPF Band, Air Force Band, Naval Band, Army Military Band and Massed Bands. The principal conductor of the ceremony is Commander Vijay Charles D'Cruz.

A light show incorporating 1,000 drones became the highlight of the light show at ceremony, making India the fourth country, after China, Russia and UK, to carry out such a large-scale show with these unmanned aerial vehicles.

"Indian StartUp 'Botlab', funded by Technology Development Board (TDB) under Union Ministry of Science & Technology and led by IIT Delhi alumni, will fly 1,000 Drones in "Beating Retreat" ceremony tomorrow evening, as a part of the Light Show marking the conclusion of nearly a week-long programme related to Republic Day," Union Minister of State Science and Technology Jitendra Singh informed earlier.

At a demonstration of the Drone presentation today, the Minister interacted with the "Botlab" StartUp team members at his residence including Tanmay Bunkar, Sarita Ahlawat, Sujit Rana, Mohit Sharma, Harshit Batra, Kunal Meena and others.

Singh said that the Start-Up, Botlab Dynamics was given an initial seed fund of Rs. one crore rupees for R&D by Department of Science & Technology (DST) and subsequently Rs 2.5 crores for scale up and commercialisation by Technology Development Board to develop first of its kind technological project in India.

"The success of this project is a perfect example of inter-Ministerial coordination wherein everyone from senior officials to the last executing official of MoD, DST TDB and IIT Delhi all worked together to make this programme a success and supporting the company in demonstrating the accomplishment of Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission," he added.

Rajesh Kumar Pathak, IP&TAFS, Secretary, TDB stated that, "Due to paucity of time, the project came as a challenge to TDB but considering the innovation involved and contribution it would make to nation building. TDB took this up and we are glad that we could provide the assistance on time. Also, I would also like to thank Prof Ashutosh Sharma (Former Chairperson, TDB & Former Secretary, DST) for his timely support for the project and my predecessor Dr. Neeraj Sharma (Former Secretary, TDB) for understanding the project's national importance."

Image courtesy: ANI