Eyes in the sky

India is on the cusp of allowing commercial and recreational use of drones in its airspace. Building further on guidelines that it issued earlier in April 2016, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last week came out with a draft policy on operating drones and other remotely piloted aircraft systems in the country. The aviation regulator has placed the draft rules in the public domain for comments and suggestions, and a regulatory framework is expected to be ready by the end of the year. Once it happens, India will join countries that allow drones to be used for civilian applications. This is expected to spur the use of drones in a diverse range of areas such as agricultural and industrial applications, aerial photography, recreational drone racing, and eventually in delivering goods at doorsteps.

Drones have been around for a while in India. Many government agencies, especially the military and police forces, have been using them, although infrequently, for over a decade. They are deployed for crowd surveillance during major religious festivals, for search and relief operations in natural and man-made calamities, and in fighting militant infestations. Lately, state-owned organisations and private firms have been using drones for oil and gas pipeline inspection and crop assessment. Last year, drone enthusiasts even founded India’s first drone racing league. But the trouble is that the current aircraft rules do not cover use of drones for civilian purposes as well as their sale and purchase. Importing them is next to impossible, with most of the estimated 1,000-odd drones in India sourced from grey markets. DGCA, in fact, restricted its use by civilians when it found out that a drone was used to deliver pizza in Mumbai in October 2014. However, it relented in April last year when it issued guidelines for registering unmanned aircraft systems including drones and obtaining permits to fly them. The latest move is a continuation in that direction.

Whether India is ready for this is another issue. World over, aviation regulators are grappling with the task of regulating an ever-increasing number of drones in crowded airspace. Only last month, President Trump asked the US Federal Aviation Administration to explore the possibility of allowing unmanned aerial systems to expand operations. The EU too hopes to have a comprehensive air traffic control system for drones by 2019. While the draft norms have put in place some restrictions in the form of no-fly zones for drones, enforcement will be key. It was only two months back that a pilot of a commercial aircraft spotted a drone taking pictures around the capital’s Indira Gandhi international airport, leading to suspension of air traffic for a couple of hours. Besides the danger of such autonomous vehicles compromising public safety, privacy is a major concern. India should proceed with caution.

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