Drone sales surge on the back of govt's friendly policies

Proposed regulations are expected to open up the market for commercial use of drones

Aamir Khan's '3 Idiots' is arguably the most successful Hindi movie at the box office. Along with its actors, the film brought inadvertent fame to IITian Ankit Mehta, too. Khan flew a drone in the movie designed by Mehta and his friends, thus raising awareness about the flying devices.

Mehta manufactures drones and his firm ideaForge is among a handful of companies licensed  by the central government. In the last five years, Mehta has supplied 150 drones to government agencies, including the police and paramilitary forces, but none to a private user. Proposed regulations will  help open up the market for commercial use of drones, says Mehta.

Drones are used in India for commercial photography, film shoots, and surveys of land and industrial facilities. Coal India plans to use them for aerial survey of coal blocks and has secured an approval from the government. Insurance companies are using drones to film farms and ascertain crop yields.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has issued draft regulations for ownership and operations of drones.  In a public notice in October 2014, the DGCA said no

non-government agency, organisation or individual could launch an unmanned aerial vehicle till it issued regulations.

Drone makers see the draft regulations as a positive step to regularise flying of drones.  However, a civil aviation ministry official says there are many hurdles before regulations on drones are put in place. “The home ministry and defence ministry are in a dispute over who should be responsible for neutralising an unauthorised drone flying in remote areas. Such issues need to be fixed,” points out the official

“We need to encourage the manufacture of unmanned aerial vehicles and the draft policy is a positive step,” says Atul Khosla, founder-director of Om UAV Systems. Khosla’s company secured a production licence from the government nine months ago and has supplied drones to the army.

Khosla says his firm receives business enquiries from power companies, fertiliser plants and refineries for aerial surveys, but it does not sell to private users because of the current restrictions. Drones are also used widely by the armed forces. According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India was the largest importer of drones between 1985 and  2014.

China's DJI Technology is the world’s largest consumer drone maker and its Phantom and Inspire brands are popular. These are used by the forest department and fire brigades in India. Drones vary in size, range, endurance and payload; are broadly categorised as fixed wing and rotorcraft and are powered by batteries.  

A  DJI quadcopter is priced Rs 55,000-500,000, has a flying range of 400 m-4 km. “Like radio-operated toys, the quadcopter works on the 2.4 GHz frequency,  which is a licence-free band. Also these quadcopters come with a “no fly zone” feature, inbuilt software that prevents them from venturing into prohibited areas and airports,” says Ameet Nichani who provides the DJI drones to government agencies.

Nichani feels that the government should simplify the procedure to issue permits to drone users. The current rules would deter users from applying to government, he feels.

“Also the rules state users will have to file flight plan with air traffic control and obtain clearances from it. Will ATC be able to grant clearances and monitor drone flying when it is over burdened with regular flight movements,” he questioned.

The draft regulations state DGCA permit will be required for all drone operations at 200 feet or above in an uncontrolled airspace and above Khosla feels that height ceiling should increase to around 750 feet to avoid non compliance of rules.  For operations under 200 feet no permit is required, as per the draft.

“At a height of 200 feet a drone will face obstacles like buildings or trees and also user may also lose a visual contact. Users will try to bypass the regulation and fly them at  at 400-500  feet and thus not comply with the rule,” Khosla said.

Shinil Shekhar whose firm Airpix offers aerial photography services using drones suggests that the DGCA should lower the proposed 90-day period for seeking approval for use of drones to around 15 days.

“In industrial applications, one of the main reasons to use a unmanned aerial vehicle is to reduce the time involved in carrying out a task by the conventional methods. If the regulations take away that advantage then, the whole purpose gets defeated,” he said.