The Union Government notified the drone certification scheme on January 26, 2022, to make documentation of drones hassle-free and transparent.
The gazette notification issued by the Ministry of civil aviation said that the government has been working to establish a world-leading drone ecosystem in India, which will create the physical and digital infrastructure to support safe, efficient and secure access to the Indian airspace by millions of drones.
The release of Drone Rules 2021 has made it possible to establish a global certification and accreditation framework for drones that would scale, with appropriate safeguards, the commercial application of various drone technologies, it said.
The government has formulated the Digital Sky platform for registering and operating drones with an all-digital process. Every flight that a user wishes to embark in a yellow or red zone can request permission to fly online. The users are required to complete a one-time registration for their drones, pilots and owners.
Government to provide Subsidy and Grant for Purchase of Drones
Earlier, to promote drones, the Government offered a 100 percent grant of up to INR 10 lakh to Agricultural Institutes to purchase drones for Farming and its allied activities.
In addition, the Government has also provided a grant of 75 percent of the cost of a drone to the farmer’s producers organizations (FPOs) for displaying on the farmers’ fields, according to a senior officer of the Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Ministry.
At first, financial assistance and grants will be available until March 31, 2023, and then reviewed again.
The existing Custom Hiring Centres (CHC) that the Cooperative Society of Farmers or FPOs has established will also be given a grant of 40 percent of the basic cost of the drone and its attachments up to INR 4 lakh, the Ministry informed.
Beating retreat to have a gala drone show to promote the sector
India has announced that a novel “Drone Show” comprising 1,000 swarm drones will light up the sky for about 10 minutes during the Beating Retreat Ceremony on January 29, 2022.
It has been designed, conceptualized and produced indigenously under the “Make in India” initiative by Botlab Dynamics. It has been sponsored by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
India would become the fourth nation to achieve such a feat with the display by making it a front-row actor with a strong foothold in the field of drone technology.
