Hobby circles and research institutions in India have been working (or playing) with drones for a while now. In this context, drones do not just refer to camera based quadcopters, hexacopters or octacopters that we have been hearing about in the news for the past couple of years. Drones refer to fixed-wing or rotor-wing unmanned vehicles that can be used for a variety of purposes fitted with the necessary gear. Quite a few hobbyists/flying-enthusiasts fly these amazing machines simply for the fun of it. And it does feel amazing. We can vouch for that. Researches have a whole different purpose though – a scientific one. Equipped with the proper set of sensors, you can measure quite a few things about the aerodynamics of the drone itself, environmental parameters at various altitudes or hard-to-reach places, detect forest degradation, search and rescue in case of emergencies, identify hot spots in industrial zones using thermal imaging cameras and much more.
On 21-04-2016, Office of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of Government of India announced Draft Guidelines for obtaining Unique Identification Number (UIN) & Operation of Civil Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The name of the document explains what it is about but allow us to brief it out in a sentence. The document presents guidelines for obtaining what is the equivalent of an Aadhaar ID in India for a drone (UAS). It also lays out guidelines for who’s qualified for flying a drone (UAS) and how one needs to fly it and what kind of permissions need to be taken before flying it. Here are the key highlights of the guidelines.
There’s a few points we might have skipped but they are either too technical or are redundant/insignificant compared to the ones mentioned above. For full text of the guidelines, please refer to the document mentioned on the link here.
We welcome the initiative of DGCA in coming up with the draft guidelines. There are a few aspects we take exception to such as the low 200ft height limit (compared to the 400ft limit by countries like U.S.) and the need to keep two-way communication throughout a flight. There is also ambiguity with respect to which weight categories some sections of the regulations are applicable to and whether below 200ft flights require adherence to certain points that usually manned flights are required to follow. We had given our feedback to DGCA requesting for some of the application procedures to be made completely digital and for allowing relaxed regulations for the hobby sector.
It’s been 8 months since the draft was issued but a final set of guidelines still aren’t in sight. Major cities have announced bans on drones due to crashes by a few amateur pilots and flying of drones in restricted areas. We understand that there’s a reason for concern due to the security threats drones pose when unregulated. However, we also hope that the government understands the tremendous potential of this technology and what it can do in domains such as agriculture, disaster relief, forest management, solar/wind power plant monitoring etc. that don’t strictly have much to do with populated areas.
It’s been 8 months since the draft was issued but a final set of guidelines still aren’t in sight. Major cities have announced bans on drones due to crashes by a few amateur pilots and flying of drones in restricted areas. We understand that there’s a reason for concern due to the security threats drones pose when unregulated. However, we also hope that the government understands the tremendous potential of this technology and what it can do in domains such as agriculture, disaster relief, forest management, solar/wind power plant monitoring etc. that don’t strictly have much to do with populated areas.
There’s also this actual manned drone from a company called EHANG in China which seems to be doing pilots in order to make the vehicle fully ready for use in urban areas. A proper regulatory mechanism and positive push from the DGCA and related authorities will let the fledgling drone industry in India to not only toy with futuristic ideas like the above but also to come up with solutions specific to India. We do hope to hear something to that effect in 2017. Having said that, the drone industry also has equal responsibility in assuring the authorities of the safety of the technology by developing the necessary supporting technologies independently or in coordination with the government.
