Drone operations | Digital Sky platform to be fully functional by October, says DGCA

The Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021, was notified by the Centre on March 12.

Digital Sky, the online platform hosted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for various activities related to the management of drones in India, will be fully functional by October 2022, the regulatory body under the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.

While addressing the National Conference on Promotion of Kisan Drones: Issues, Challenges and Way Forward, DGCA Assistant Director Manish Gupta said that Set 2 of Phase 2 of Digital Sky which includes features such as applying for a remote pilot certificate, application for starting Remote Pilot Training Organisation, pilot certificate, and flight plan submission will be enabled by July this year.

Gupta added that Set 3 of Phase 2, which has features such as Situational Awareness enhancements, beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, suspension or cancellation or revocation of permissions, and compliance to Drone Rules 2021 will be enabled by October, making the platform fully functional.  Earlier, in September 2021, the DGCA released India’s airspace map for drone operations on an online platform.

The event was inaugurated by Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar who informed the audience that for promoting the use of Kisan Drones, the government was providing 50 percent or a maximum of Rs 5 lakh subsidy to scheduled castes and tribes, women and small farmers of northeastern states to buy drones.

Tomar also said that in order to provide agricultural services through drones, financial assistance to the tune of 40 percent of the basic cost of a drone and its attachments or Rs 4 lakh, whichever is less, is also provided by existing and new custom hiring centres under Cooperative Society of Farmers, Farmers Producer Organisations  and rural entrepreneurs.

Smit Shah, president of Drone Federation of India highlighted that there was a problem with the subsidy implementation. "Rollout procedure of subsidies is still not clear at state level. It needs central-level hand-holding and tracking," Shah said at the event. He also pointed out that banks were not recognising drones under Agriculture Infra Fund and that it needed sensitisation programmes.

Apart from that, he requested the government to create standard operating procedures in multiple languages regarding the agri usage of drones, and do sensitisation videos of crop spraying.