India’s New Drone Policystrikes All The Right Notes

Context: We now have a lighter-touch regulatory regime that should encourage UAV usage for both commercial and state initiatives.

Liberalized Drone Rules, 2021: Lighter-touch approach - 

• A dozen approvals have been done away with, among them those related to unique authorization numbers, certificates of manufacturing and airworthiness, import clearances and operator permits.
• Number of forms has been slashed to 5 from 25 and, types of fees have been reduced to 4 from 72.
• The fee itself has been dropped to a nominal level and delinked from drone size.
• No permission would be needed for flying in green zones, which stand expanded thanks to a reduction in the yellow zone around airports to a radius of 12km from 45km.
• Drones can weigh up to half a tonne, a limit raised from 300kg earlier, a move that will let pilotless air-taxis operate.
• The Centre’s Digital Sky platform is expected to lay out air corridors with green, yellow and red zones marked out.

Significance and upcoming applications of drone technology

• Recognizing the growth potential in a drone:  Our policymakers have recognized that over-regulation would stifle operations of the sunrise industry at birth.
• However, drones have significant growth and employment potential: The government envisions India emerging as a ‘global drone hub’ by 2030.
• Multitude of applications: On the back of benefits of reach and versatility.
• Potential for a vast array of services ranging from package delivery to air travel aboard two-seaters.  
• Hazardous industrial sites can safely be monitored, and aerial scanners can conduct land surveys.
• Utility as surveillance tools by security forces (though restrained by provisions in privacy law).

Way forward

• Impart policy stability: Critical for attracting investments.
• Balancing security risks arising from drone proliferation, be it the danger of lethal payloads or rogue eyes in the sky.
• Rules must not vary by public threat perceptions, which could turn volatile in case of, say, a terror attack carried out by an aerial device.
• Capacity building: We need an alert air traffic police that can spot trouble in advance, something like Israel’s invisible ‘dome’ that was designed to shield its urban spaces from low-range missile strikes.