A flight path with obstacles: Article Analysis

Introduction:

• Businesses across industries ranging from real estate developers to power producers in India will be able to use commercial drones for monitoring, and shipping and delivery operations from 1 December 2018 as the government unveiled a landmark policy.
• While announcing the publication of these guidelines, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu made two points,
• For one, he estimated the potential of the “drone market” in India to be $1 trillion. And in the next breath he said India’s security environment necessitated extra precautions.

The drone policy:

• India now has a defined policy on flying drones or unmanned/remotely operated aircrafts. The policy and the guidelines have been finalized by the Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA). This would mean that private operators could now use drones for various purposes and applications. These include agriculture, disaster relief, health and so on, but there are restrictions as well.
• The operators of drones will have to make an online registration and obtain a Unique ID before they start using the drones. There is also the restriction that a drone should be within the visual sight of 450 metres.
• Five categories of drones have been drawn out from the smallest (nano) ones being those less than 250 grams and the largest ones those that weigh more than 150 kgs.

Restrictions:

• The new guidelines prohibit operating autonomous aircraft without any permission or UIN.
• Some categories of drones have been exempted from the registration process. These include government-owned drones, nano drones, those that weigh less than or equal to 250 grams and operating below 50 feet and for the micro category, which are drones weighing between 250g and 2kg and operating below 200 feet.
• Educational institutes that use drones for teaching, aerial photography and recreational purposes don’t have to apply for a UIN and those flying them will be fully responsible for the operations and safety of the drone. However, the guidelines state that the local police will have to be informed.
• The other major restriction is security related, which means no drones will be permitted close to the international borders and the coast line, key security installations and places like Vijay Chowk in Delhi and state secretariat buildings.
• Flying over densely populated areas and places that could affect public safety will require prior approval. Flying beyond 500 metres into the sea from a coastline is also prohibited.
• The guidelines also say that a drone cannot be flown from any moving platform such as a moving vehicle, ship, etc.

Significance of Drones:

• There is ample scope for the use of drone services in the areas of disaster relief, surveillance, security monitoring, precision agriculture and precision logistics.
• Owing to the small size of the drones, they can usually penetrate into constricted spaces. Add to that, effective cameras and this makes the drones suitable for purposes of bomb detection. Thus, these aerial vehicles are apt for making us aware of unexploded bombs and save lives.
• The defence of any country usually tends to conduct regular surveys in order to ensure protection of the people and the place. Drones can perform this function in a better way.
• The ability of the drones to reach places where reporters cannot reach has heightened their use in the world of journalism. Aerial footage for live broadcast is becoming increasingly useful these days.
• Even though the shipping and delivery applications of the drones are still under process, this idea could be revolutionary for the world. This could significantly improve delivery times and reduce human labor.
• One of the most important applications for these unmanned vehicles lies in disaster management.
• Usually, a rescue operation is a fight against time. You need to get the work done fast and smoothly. This is where drones come in handy. With the help of thermal sensors, drones can locate lost persons and are especially useful at night or even in challenging terrains.
• Aerial vehicles are also useful for sending in food or medical supplies to unreachable locations before the rescue team comes in to help. Thus, drones can be the first to arrive and collect information for rescue operations.
• Over the years, a lot of people have spent a lot of time and energy over archeological surveys. Now, drones have made this work easier since they can bring us important footage and essential details about these archeological sites.
• Crowds of people can be monitored and criminal activity can be detected in case there is an emergency. These can also be used for law enforcement officials for crime scenes where a more detailed view can give us more information about the situation.
• With the help of the near infrared sensors, one could study the health of these crops and farmers could act accordingly. Moreover, drones can perform this analysis at low costs with no impacts on the fields or the surrounding areas. This not only leads to healthy crop growth, but also increases their yield.
• One of the most important uses of drones lies in weather forecasting. This has, once again, given new light to the concept of predicting the weather conditions.

Criticism of India’s drone policy:

• While the rest of the world has been soaring ahead in making the futuristic promise of unmanned flying vehicles a more immediate reality, India has largely been dragging its feet.
• The security and privacy risks of allowing drones to fly in an unregulated manner are high. However, if India is to reach even the fraction of the $1 trillion potential, it needs to figure out a more balanced manner of regulation.
• Missing out on working on these applications early enough will likely have serious repercussions to India’s future competitiveness in the field.
• Manufacturers of drones as well as technologists and researchers making applications using drones have to test fly these frequently, often several times a day.

Conclusion:

• In India, so many Government authorities are involved in allowing permission. It is inevitable that operators could be slapped easily with real and perceived violations.
• China’s drone economy manufacturing and development will be worth $9 billion in 2020, while the U.S’s commercial drone market is expected to be $2.05 billion by 2023 (Global Market Insights). For India to compete against these giants, it already has a lot of catching up to do.
• Filing a series of applications in multiple copies and waiting for various government departments to respond is not the best way to get started.
• Drones are likely to be the disaster prevention systems, rescue operation leaders, and even public transport providers in the not too distant future. Missing out on working on these applications early enough will likely have serious repercussions to India’s future competitiveness in the field.
• A policy which ease the growth of drone technology is the need of the hour.

Model Mains Question: Analyse the drone policy of India. What are the possible solutions that can mitigate the present limitations of the policy?

Source: The Hindu