Our liberalized policy on drones will serve us well

Relevance: Advantages offered by drones and how a liberal drone rules regime can help India get ahead in this sector.

Synopsis: Draft drone rules released recently are being hailed as progressive.

Why we needed a new set of rules?

The earlier drone rules were an over- kill that would have stifled drone usage and deprived the country of their myriad benefits. Too many permissions were needed to make, import and operate drones. Also, fines so steep were envisioned that they would have deterred startups from entering this field.

• With its revisions, however, the ministry has eased the regulatory burden, enabling a services market to take off.

Benefits of drones

• Drones can serve a wide range of uses across sectors, from farming and mining to e-commerce and vaccine drop-offs.
• Monitoring of hazardous sites: It is far safer to have a drone monitor a hazardous site, for example, than expose humans to it.
• For transporting vital supplies to places that are hard to access.
• Utility for state initiatives: Their utility for state initiatives is also very high, like
  • cartographic exercises or for farm surveys and police surveillance.

It would serve our economy best if drones are deployed mostly by private players as enhancers of efficiency, rather than by the state as its eyes, ears and arms.

For that, our drone rules need to be as market-friendly as possible within the constraints of public security.

The threat posed by drones

• Lethal payloads: A drone has the ability to carry lethal payloads. The recent drone attack on an air-force installation in Jammu brought this problem into sharp focus.

Once drones are common in our skies, the prevention of rogue flights would need a foolproof vigil.

Way forward

While highly sensitive areas must stay off-limits to drones, we should not complicate matters for operators beyond what’s necessary. Yet, we should be ready to adapt our drone rules in response to new learnings and advancements.

Terms to know:-

• Draft drone rules 2021
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles