Drones: The New Era | Gist of Rajya Sabha TV / RSTV (now Sansad TV) - UPSC PDF Download

Introduction

Unmanned aircraft systems, commonly referred to as drones, are democratizing the sky and enabling new participants in aviation. Inaugurating the Bharat Drone Mahotsav on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the importance of drone technology in the fields of defence, disaster management, agriculture, tourism, film and entertainment. He also said that the enthusiasm surrounding drone technology in India indicates that it could soon become an emerging sector of employment generation in India. According to Civil Aviation Ministry’s estimates India’s drone sector is all set to achieve a total turnover of 120-150 billion rupees by 2026, from its current turnover of about 800 million rupees. In the recent past the Central Government has undertaken a series of reform measures to promote India’s upcoming drone industry. The new drone laws have started facilitating traction in the market with numerous companies partnering to disseminate technology knowledge and attract funds.
Use of drones as highlighted by PM:

• Military and Policing: Drones are largely used for military or policing purposes, but they also have other uses.
• Recreation and Sports: They are used for recreation and sports. The Chinese company DJI dominates this space.
• Logistics: Logistics is another use, with Amazon developing last-mile drone delivery. At scale, this delivery model can save money, energy and time.
• Domino’s extended this logic to deliver its first pizza by drone in New Zealand and is experimenting with scaling this model up in many markets.
• Botswana has had some successful trials where drones have delivered blood and life-saving drugs to villages out in the wilderness.
• Agriculture: A start up called Terraview uses drones with advanced image processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality to increase the productivity of vineyards.
• A drone can be used to measure the amount of grainthat’s piled up after harvest.
• Mining Output: Tata Steel has used drones quite effectively to measure mining output.
• Access the inaccessible places:Drones can go where people cannot.
• So, inspection and repair at remote wind farms on an island, or pipelines in the remote tundra, or equipment in a rainforest can be done more cheaply and precisely.
• Drone surveillance is now widely used by the insurance industry in the aftermath of floods or pest inspections.
• They can provide organizations a 360-degree view of the status of any construction project and its assets.
• Explosive detection and defusing: In many places, it is just safer to send a drone, such as while using explosives in deep mines or defusing suspected bombs.
• Wildlife protection and survey: drones are used to survey wildlife and detect poaching in the jungles of Africa.

New Rules

• The Drone Rules is built on a premise of trust, self-certification, and non-intrusive monitoring.
• Digital sky platform shall be developed as a business-friendly single-window online system.
• No flight permission required upto 400 feet in green zones and upto 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter.
• No pilot licence required for micro drones (for non-commercial use), nano drone and for R&D organisations.
• No restriction on drone operations by foreign-owned companies registered in India.
• Import of drones and drone components to be regulated by DGFT.
• No security clearance required before any registration or licence issuance.
• No requirement of certificate of airworthiness, unique identification number, prior permission and remote pilot licence for R&D entities.
• Coverage of drones under Drone Rules, 2021 increased from 300 kg to 500 kg. This will cover drone taxis also.
• Issuance of Certificate of Airworthiness delegated to Quality Council of India and certification entities authorised by it.
• Manufacturer may generate their drone’s unique identification number on the digital sky platform through the self-certification route.
• Maximum penalty under Drone Rules, 2021 reduced to INR 1 lakh. This shall, however, not apply to penalties in respect of violation of other laws.
• Drone corridors will be developed for cargo deliveries.
• Drone promotion council to be set up to facilitate a business-friendly regulatory regime.

How drones became a tool of terror?

• The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) in February 2021 published a report titled, The Role of Drones in Future Terrorist Attacks.
• Earlier in 2013, Al-Qaeda attempted a terror attack using multiple drones in Pakistan without success. From 2016 on, the Islamic State made drone attacks a regular feature in its operations in Iraq and Syria.
• The threat was so serious that in 2019, European Union Security Commissioner Julian King warned that European cities could be targeted by terror groups using drones.
• The threat of drone attacks from the Pakistani side is very real.
• Sighting of drones near India-Pakistan border and the Line of Control (LoC) has been frequent. Some of them have carried weapons to the Indian side.
• In 2019, security personnel reported 167 sighting of drones from Pakistan, according to the official figures. In the pandemic hit 2020, there were 77 sightings.
• In September 2019, the Punjab Police had seized a drone-dropped arms consignment to bust a terror module, which was receiving supplies from Pakistan. The seizure included AK-47 rifles and China-made pistols.
• In January 2021, the Jammu and Kashmir Police caught two persons as they were picking up drone-dropped arms consignment.

Conclusion

• Drones can indeed be a fantastic tool for good projects, from helping save the planet to identifying and nabbing criminals, and preventing the loss of human life. However, for that, we will have to change the DNA that they were born with, as lethal weapons of war. Otherwise, they will remain anonymous killers, wreaking death and destruction as they hover innocuously above.
• Regulation on use of drones in India should be effectively implemented to foster technology and innovation in the development of dronesand improve the ease of doing business, by sidelining unnecessary requirements and creating a single-window process.
• The government should ensure protection of privacy of citizens by limiting the use of drones for surveillance.
• It is important to use drones responsibly to minimize negative impacts on wildlife, including birds.
• Possibilities of drone-related accidents should be minimized by strict enforcement of regulations.