India totally banned drone imports to encourage local startups: Union Minister Ram Mohan Naidu

Amaravati: Union Minister of Civil Aviation K Ram Mohan Naidu on Tuesday said India has totally banned the import of drones to encourage local talent to manufacture them.

Addressing the two-day national drone summit at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, the Civil Aviation Minister noted that the government banned drone imports as it does not want some other country or company to benefit at the cost of India.

“We have banned the total import of drones, why did we do it? We want to encourage more startups to come in this drone sector. We want the people of this country to manufacture drones. We don't want to import drones and let the benefit go to some other country or some other company,” said Naidu.

According to the union minister, the government wants the young and bright minds of the country to develop new types of drones to cater to solutions which are indigenous to the country, so, with that mindset ‘we banned imports’.

The aviation minister highlighted that the Centre has liberalised rules for the drone ecosystem and enabled 27 companies to benefit from the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme of Rs 120 crore.

He also highlighted that the liberalised regime was aimed at attracting more R&D and investments.

Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call, he said a country like India needs 1 lakh registered drones, compared to the current 27,000.

Asserting that the PM is one of the strongest motivators of drone utilisation, Naidu said the Centre’s Drone Didi programme is empowering 30,000 women in the country.

The Drone Didi programme trains eligible women as drone pilots for their use in agriculture.

Noting that India has emerged as a drone hub in the past few years, he said the government wants to push the industry further.

"Looking at a drone hub in Andhra Pradesh in the future... want to ensure that Andhra Pradesh grows to the best of its ability," he said, adding that the government wants to ensure that the southern state will emerge as the drone hub of the world.

Further elaborating Government of India’s (GoI) initiatives for the drone ecosystem over the past few years, Vumlunmang Vualnam, secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said drone rules were liberalised in 2021 to provide a favourable ecosystem, supporting startups, MSMEs, youngsters, academicians and those interested in drones.

“The forms and procedures required were simplified and in fact even more this year. We have further reduced the documentation to make it easy and simple for people to buy the drones, operate the drones and be an owner of drones. So, the regulatory regime has been made very favourable,” Vualnam said.

Likewise, he noted that the banning of drone imports was a major step to promote self-reliance and indigenous manufacture, design and development of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

As flying drones requires airspace, the aviation secretary said 90 percent of India’s airspace has been made a green zone through the Digisky platform, which doesn’t require permission or clearance.

“This again is a step which will help in the adoption of drones in different applications (and) different uses across the length and breadth of Andhra Pradesh (and) also across the length and breadth of our great country,” he said.

According to Vualnam, the PLI scheme for drones, which started two and a half years ago has been a great success with a budget outlay that was double the size of the drone industry at that time.

As the scheme is poised to culminate at the end of the three years period, the aviation secretary said the government is looking forward to expanding and enlarging it.

Outlining future government steps, Vualnam observed that India should focus on R&D in drones and scale up manufacture of drone components.

“I would like to encourage all the startups, all the young people, MSMEs, all the engineering and scientific institutions, let’s put our heads together and focus on R&D and component manufacture,” he said.

He assured that the Centre will come up with a scheme which will support these activities.

Further, Vualnam noted that as drone applications and utilisation is expanding, the issue of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) has become a major problem as drones can fly farther.

Considering this issue, he said the regulatory regime is now under drafting and discussion, welcoming suggestions, and reaffirmed that the Government of India will promote drones.

As most of the people connected to drones are looking at BVLOS, the Aviation Minister observed that exciting developments are happening on this front and the government is confidently looking at how to overcome this issue.

He noted that the American Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) is still formulating BVLOS rules while India is observing how the world is moving towards it, and added that India will also be at the forefront.

Moreover, Naidu observed that 81 different kinds of drones were certified in India and over 17,600 remote drone pilot certificates were also issued.

The mega drone summit on October 22 and 23 will feature drone hackathons, exhibitions and participation from industry experts.

As many as 1,711 delegates and 1,306 visitors are expected to attend the summit, among others.