India’s Drone Policy 1.0

• Agriculture, Aquaculture, Silviculture, Viticulture like chemical and biological monitoring
• Urban Planning, Mapping Archeology and ensuring environmental design
• Emergency Services and Disaster Monitoring
• Environmental Management like EIA, Wildlife and habitat monitoring
• Security Services like police response coordination and criminal surveillance and tracking
• Business and Commerce like inspection of infrastructure, aero technology and robotics
• Media and communications like investigative journalism, IPL
• Recreation and Entertainment like water exploration

Civil aviation regulator DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) revamped India’s Drone policy and published guidelines for operating drones or remotely piloted aircraft systems by ordinary citizens. The new drone policy demarcates the airspace into three distinct regions: Red (no-fly zones), Yellow (restricted permissions) and Green (all access) and has even introduced Digital Sky Platform.

Digital Sky Platform

• The Digital Sky Platform is a unique unmanned traffic management (UTM) system which facilitates the registration and licensing of drones and operators in addition to giving instant (online) clearances to operators for every flight.
• The Digital Sky Platform implements the “No Permission, No Takeoff” (NPNT) clause. This implies that any drone without a digital permit to fly will simply not be able to take off, thereby preventing unauthorized flights.
• The Digital Sky Platform operates as a traffic regulator in the drone airspace and coordinates with the defence and civilian air traffic controllers (ATCs) to ensure that drones remain on the approved flight paths.
• Drone users are required to do a one-time registration of their drones (Unique Identification Number), pilots and owners
• For every flight (except for the Nano category), users will have to ask permission to fly on a mobile app and an automated process permits or denies the request instantly.

• Every drone bigger than Nano drone (weighs 250 gms) must obtain a Unique Identification number (UIN) from the aviation regulator. A UIN will be issued once and will not be issued to a foreign citizen or entity.
• An Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit(UAOP) would be provided to pilots who have cleared DGCA - approved training and only these pilots are permitted to fly drones.
• Every drone must have mandatory equipment such as GPS, anti-collision light, ID plate, radio-frequency identification (RFID) and SIM facilities with software that ensures ‘no-permission, no-takeoff”.
• Drones must only be flown during daylight, while maintaining full visual line of sight at all times.
• A written notice informing the local police is a must prior to flight operations.
• “No- drone zones” have been specifically mentioned. These zones restrict flying of drones along perimeters of high- traffic airports, international borders, eco sensitive areas, military or strategic installations or even from mobile platforms like a moving vehicle, ship or aircraft.

• Address the requirements of commercial use of drones by providing guidelines Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations.
• Address security concerns of third party control of drones due to use of radio frequency identification (RFID) as well as GSM and SIM card slots.
• Ease norms and guidelines related to manufacturing of drones
• Clear cut policy guidelines on human controlled and autonomous drones
• Codify specific laws and details related to Air Traffic Management and Digital Sky Platform
• Specify penalty provisions in case of misuse of drone