In March this year, the Indian government came up what was deemed to be comprehensive rules for the use of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) or drones.
But just in around 4 months time, the Indian government is compelled to come up with changes to those rules.
Why this hurried change? Well, there has been some strong feedback from the industry and stakeholders against the previous rules. Also, India has had a disturbing drone attack with explosives at one of its air bases in Jammu and Kashmir.
Impelled by these events, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently had a meeting of top ministers to discuss the formulation of a policy for the traffic management of drones.
And the country's new Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia announced the new draft rules yesterday for public consultation.
The Drone Rules, 2021 will replace the UAS Rules 2021 that was released last March. The last date for receipt of public comments is 5 August 2021.
"The updated rules are built on a premise of trust, self-certification, and non-intrusive monitoring", the Civil Aviation ministry said.
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So what are the changes in the new rules?
Well, in an overall way, the new policy seeks to make it easier for people and companies to own and operate drones, while also simplifying the certification process for manufacturers, importers and users.
The number of forms have been reduced from 25 to 6. The ministry said the fee have been reduced to nominal levels and there is no linkage with the size of the drone.
The new rules say no pilot licence will be required for micro drones (for non-commercial use), nano drones and for research and development (R&D) organisations. Ban on the use of drones by foreign-owned companies registered in India is being lifted, and no security clearance will be required before any registration or licence is issued.
Thrown out of the window from the previous rules are: unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, operator permit, authorisation of R&D organisation, and student remote pilot licence.
The draft rules also have safety features such real-time tracking beacon, and geo-fencing, which are expected to be notified in future.
Digital Sky platform, the one-stop place for all go-aheads
In a major fillip to the drone industry, I am happy to present the Draft Drone Rules 2021 that mark a stark shift from the earlier UAS Rules. 10 key takeaways: ✅ Several approvals abolished & processes made easier ✅ No. of forms reduced from 25 to 51/4July 15, 2021
The new rules envisage developing digital sky platform for a business-friendly single-window online system. Digital Sky will be the platform to obtain the mandatory registration number and remote pilot license, and will be under India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
An interactive airspace map with green, yellow, and red zones will be displayed on the digital sky platform. The yellow zone has been reduced from 45 km to 12 km from nearby airport perimeter, and no flight permission is required up to 400 feet in green zones and up to 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter. In red zones, drone operations shall be permitted only under exceptional circumstances. To fly in the yellow zone, permission is needed from the air traffic control authority. These zones are basically geo-fencing airspace.
And more importantly, new drone corridors will be developed for cargo deliveries and a drone promotion council will be set up to facilitate a business-friendly regulatory regime.
