REGULATION OF DRONES IN INDIA
In India, a sudden ban was imposed on usage of any civil drone in 2014 after a Mumbai based pizza shop started delivering pizzas with the help of drones in their neighbourhood. This was a huge setback to the drone industry in India. While other countries like China used the opportunity and enlarged their drone industry, India remained on the back foot. It took the government four long years to rectify their mistake and in 2018 they came up with a regulatory policy for drones. These are still under review with other ministries but will be formalized in the next couple of years.
India has formulated an all-digital process known as Digital Sky Platform (DSP) which is a first of its kind unmanned traffic management (UTM) platform. It implements the unique policy of No Permission, No Take-off (NPNT). This policy divides the drones based on their weights such as Nano (250 grams), Micro (from 250 g to 2 kg), Small (from 2 kg to 25 kg), Medium (from 25 kg to 150 kg) and Large (greater than 150 kg).
Users have to do a one-time registration of drones, pilots and their owners. Before every flight, they will have to acquire permission (except for the Nano category) to fly through a mobile app. Any drone without the permit would not be able to take off, this is to ensure public safety and prevent any unauthorized flights.
