**Executive Summary**
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Drone Federation India (DFI) launched NIDAR 2.0 on July 13, 2026, under the SwaYaan initiative. This national challenge tasks student teams with developing autonomous drones and components using the indigenous VEGA processor. The program features a prize pool of over Rs 65 lakh and aims to build a self-reliant drone ecosystem through internships, incubation, and technical support.
**Key Points / Main Content**
* **Challenge Tracks**
* **Track 1 (Drone Innovation):** Requires students to build fully autonomous swarm drones for disaster zones (locating survivors/delivering medical parcels) and GPS-denied drones for indoor industrial inspections.
* **Track 2 (Component Innovation):** Focuses on designing indigenous flight controllers and autopilots built specifically around the VEGA processor using local electronic components.
* **Indigenous Technology Integration**
* The challenge centers on the VEGA processor, a family of microprocessors based on open-standard RISC-V architecture developed by C-DAC.
* The initiative aims to reduce dependence on foreign chip designs and licensing costs by encouraging students to build control systems on Indian-made chips.
* The top 100 teams in Track 2 will receive two VEGA processor kits for development and testing.
* **Incentives and Support**
* Total prize pool is set at over Rs 65 lakh.
* Beyond cash prizes, winning teams receive corporate internships, startup incubation support, cloud computing credits, and software support to commercialize prototypes.
* **SwaYaan Initiative Context**
* SwaYaan is a five-year capacity-building project (approved July 2022) with an outlay of Rs 89.87 crore.
* It operates via a Hub-and-Spoke model involving 30 premier institutions (including IITs, IISc, and NITs) to train a skilled workforce for the drone sector.
**Impact Analysis**
**Student Teams**
**Impact:** Students gain access to advanced indigenous technology, professional mentorship, and significant financial rewards.
**Action Required:** Form teams to develop autonomous drone solutions or components following the NIDAR 2.0 rulebook and problem statements.
**Premier Academic Institutions (IITs, IISc, NITs, etc.)**
**Impact:** These institutions serve as hubs for the SwaYaan initiative, facilitating research, patents, and specialized degree programs in drone technology.
**Action Required:** Provide the necessary faculty support and infrastructure to mentor student teams participating in the challenge.
**Indigenous Drone and Semiconductor Industry**
**Impact:** The challenge fosters a pipeline of "India-made" hardware and software, promoting the goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat and reducing reliance on foreign technology.
**Action Required:** C-DAC must provide the VEGA processor kits to top-performing teams; industry leaders are expected to provide internships and incubation for winning prototypes.
Key Entities Referenced
NIDAR 2.0 (National Innovation Challenge for Drone Application and Research): A national-level challenge for students to build autonomous drones and indigenous flight controllers powered by Indian-made microprocessors.
SwaYaan initiative: A MeitY-approved capacity-building program aimed at developing human resources and a skilled workforce for India's drone sector.
Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) programme: A government initiative focused on reducing dependence on foreign chip designs by developing indigenous semiconductor technology.
VEGA processor: A family of indigenous microprocessors developed by C-DAC, used as the core component for building drone control systems in the NIDAR challenge.
Drone Federation India (DFI): The primary industry body collaborating with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to launch and execute the drone innovation challenge.
Ministry of Electronics & IT
Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology (MeitY) and Drone Federation India
(DFI) launch NIDAR 2.0
NIDAR 2.0 challenges students to build smarter drones
powered by an Indian-made chip
Offers a prize pool of over Rs 65 lakh, along with startup
incubation, cloud credits, software support and internships
for student teams
प्रव तथ: 13 JUL 2026 6:31PM by PIB Delhi
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in collaboration with Drone Federation
India (DFI), today launched the second edition of the National Innovation Challenge for Drone
Application and Research (NIDAR 2.0, 2026-27) under the SwaYaan initiative. The programme was
held at Electronics Niketan, New Delhi, in hybrid mode, with students, faculty, government
representatives and industry leaders joining in person and online from across the country.
Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, launched the problem statements, poster and rulebook for NIDAR 2.0.
This was followed by a special address by Shri Amitesh Kumar Sinha, Additional Secretary, MeitY and
CEO, India Semiconductor Mission. Smt. Tulika Pandey, Scientist G and Group Coordinator, MeitY, and
Shri Smit Shah, President, DFI, also addressed the gathering highlighting the salient aspects of SwaYaan
Capacity Building initiative and the NIDAR 2.0 challenge. Other senior officials from MeitY, the
Ministries of Civil Aviation, Defence and Home Affairs, the DGCA, the armed forces, and leading
academic and industry figures also took part in this event.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri S. Krishnan said, “NIDAR 2.0 takes our students from just flying drones to
building the drone’s brain. When the drone’s brain runs on India's own VEGA processor, we are not just
training engineers. We are laying the foundation of a self-reliant drone industry. VEGA is developed under
the Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) programme, a MeitY-driven initiative to reduce the country's
dependence on foreign chip designs and their licensing costs.”
The first edition of NIDAR 2025-26 was launched in March 2025. It drew 3,448 students from 22 States,
4 Union Territories and 109 cities, who built autonomous drone solutions for Disaster Management and
Precision Agriculture. Ninety-three teams reached the Grand Finale out which Twenty-four teams won
prizes worth a total of Rs. 40 Lakh.
NIDAR 2.0 raises the level of the challenge. It moves the focus from conventional airframes to
autonomous systems, indigenous avionics and core drone components. The challenge runs across two
tracks.Track 1, Drone Innovation, tasks student teams to build fully autonomous swarm drones that can locate
survivors and deliver medical parcels in a disaster zone without any external communication network. It
also challenges teams to develop a GPS-denied drone that can navigate confined indoor spaces for
industrial inspection.
Track 2, Component Innovation, challenges teams to design an indigenous flight controller and autopilot
built around the VEGA processor, using indigenous electronic components. After technical evaluation, the
top 100 teams will each receive two VEGA processors kits for development, testing and integration.
The VEGA processor is a family of indigenous microprocessors designed by the Centre for Development
of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under MeitY's Microprocessor Development Programme, based on the
open-standard RISC-V architecture. By placing this processor at the centre of the Component Innovation
track, NIDAR 2.0 encourages students to build the control systems of Indian drones on Indian-made chips.
To match the wider scope, the prize pool for NIDAR 2.0 has grown to over Rs 65 lakh. Winning teams
will also receive corporate internships, incubation support and cloud computing credits to help turn their
prototypes into commercial products. Civilian and defence drones share much of the same core
technology. The ideas emerging from NIDAR can therefore strengthen both civilian and defence
applications, in line with the goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat @2047.
About SwaYaan
Capacity Building for Human Resource Development in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Drone and Allied
Technologies)
The SwaYaan initiative, approved by MeitY in July 2022 with an outlay of about Rs 89.87 crore over five
years, builds the skilled workforce needed for India's drone sector. It runs through a Hub-and-Spoke
model of 30 premier institutions, including IISc, IITs, IIITs, NITs, C-DAC and NIELIT, across five work
themes: Aeromechanics, Drone Electronics, GNC Algorithms and Simulation, Drone Applications, and
Allied UAS Technologies. The project has trained more than 51,000 people so far. It has also supported
M.Tech and minor degree programmes, retrofitting electives, online courses, research papers and patents
in drone technology. NIDAR is its flagship innovation platform. For more details, visit https://swayaan.me
ity.gov.in
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Dharmendra Tewari / Kanishk Sharma / Vanshita Jaiswal
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