Centre comes up with liberalised drone rule
The civil aviation ministry on Thursday notified the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021, that replace the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules (UAS), 2021, which came into force in March. The new rules are aimed at making it significantly easier for people and companies to own and operate drones. They also streamline a labyrinthine certification process for manufacturers, importers and users.
“India has the potential to be a global drone hub by 2030 as drones offer tremendous benefits to all sectors of the economy and can be significant creators of employment and economic growth due to their reach, versatility, and ease of use,” the ministry said on Thursday.
According to the new rules, special drone corridors will be developed for cargo deliveries. Several approvals have also been abolished. They include unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, certificate of manufacturing and airworthiness, certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, acceptance of existing drones, operator permits, authorisation of R&D organisation, student remote pilot licence, remote pilot instructor authorisation, drone port authorisation etc.
Building on its attempt to make rules easier, the new rules say no pilot licence will be required for micro drones (for non-commercial use), nano drones and for R&D organisations. There will no longer be a ban on the use of drones by foreign-owned companies registered in India. No security clearance will be required before any registration or licence is issued.
The government plans to open what is known as the Digital Sky platform, which manufacturers will be able to use for the certification process, and from where interactive airspace maps with green, yellow, and red zones can be accessed.
Digital Sky will also serve as a unified platform for users to obtain the mandatory regi tion number and remote license. People will need to c the service to determine if restrictions are in place be they fly a drone at a location. platform will be under In aviation regulator, the Dire ate General of Civil Aviation
Drones have been under spotlight since such a device used to target an Indian Force base in Jammu explosives in June. Officials since said they are workin anti-drone technologies. Ty consumer drones usually some inbuilt safeguards, w mean not all are unsafe.
Drones now form a signifi new consumer tech categ particularly among hobb and visual artists, and are b tested for a range of practic well as industrial uses suc automated package deliverie e-commerce companies.
“Unmanned Aircraft Syst (UAS), commonly know drones, offer tremendous b fits to almost all sectors of economy like – agriculture, ing, infrastructure, surveilla emergency response, transp tion, geo-spatial mapp defence, and law enforcem etc,” the ministry said.