India announces draft drone policy: Click here to read the complete text
Indian drone company Garuda Aerospace looking forward to $1bn valuation by end-2022
The draft drone guidelines for 2021, were posted for public comment on Thursday by the Civil Aviation Ministry of the Indian government.
The Drone Rules of 2021 will take the place of the UAS Rules of 2021, which were published on March 12, 2021.
The government is seeking public consultation before notifying them to replace the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules and the deadline to submit public comments is August 5, 2021.
This comes only days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a conference of top ministers to discuss the formation of a policy for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drone traffic management.
The meeting was convened following a drone strike on an Indian Air Force facility in Jammu.
Digital Sky: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) hosts an online portal for activities relating to the management of drone activity in India.
The new rules seek to abolishapprovals for a unique authorisation number, a unique prototype identification number, a certificate of conformance, a certificate of maintenance, import clearance, acceptance of existing drones, operator permits, R&D organisation authorisation, student remote pilot licence, remote pilot instructor authorisation, drone port authorisation.
The number of forms has been reduced from 25 to 6.
The charge has been cut to minimum levels, according to the ministry, and there is no link between the size of the drone and the fee.
(With inputs from agencies)