The Week India – June 30, 2019

I

n the Hindi movie, Uri: The Surgical Strike, Paresh Rawal,

who plays a character resembling National Security Adviser

Ajit Doval, asks the DRDO for a drone that can fly close to

the border undetected. After being told that there was none,

Rawal spots an intern in a lab, fiddling with a drone that can

fly like an eagle. It plays a critical role in the movie's climax

scene.

While Uri turned out to be a big hit, drones are yet to take off

in a big way in India. The new drone policy, notified in January,

has been stuck in bureaucratic red tape. Drone manufacturers

and drone-based service providers are facing newer problems.

Under the new policy, for instance, manufacturers need to use

a single-window online platform called Digital Sky, run by the

directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), to register their

drones and obtain permission to operate them. But the plat-

form is marred by glitches.

"A drop-down list with the names of drone manufac-

turers is left blank. And, there is no option to type in the

name of the manufacturer, without which the registra-

tion process does not progress," said Sai Pattabiram,

director of the Chennai-based Sree Sai Aerotech

Innovations (SSAI) Ltd, manufacturer of one of the

most recognised drone brands in the country. "As a

result, till date, no one has been able to register on

Digital Sky," he said.

The Narendra Modi government had banned

the use of drones in October 2014. By then,

however, there were more than five lakh drones

in use, in fields as diverse as surveying, laying power

and telecommunication cables, mapping large are-

as, crop protection and aerial photography. Nearly

all the drones came from China, and all those

were illegal.

Flying a drone without proper permission

Turbulent

takeoff

Poorly drafted laws and inadequate

technical expertise hurt the government’s

attempts to regulate drones

BY SOUMIK DEY

could attract fines and impris-

onment up to six months. Yet,

between October 2014 and August

2018, when the drone policy called

“Drone Regulations 1.0” was

cleared by the Union cabinet, not

a single drone pilot was arrested.

“This reflects the half-hearted

attitude of the government,” said

Vipul Singh, co-founder of Aarav

Unmanned Systems, a Bengalu-

ru-based drone manufacturing and

services startup.

AUS is worried that the compa-

ny's innovation and business mod-

el are under threat

108 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

BUSINESS

DRONES