Drone pilot training courses to get cheaper as more schools open, says Scindia

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

Drone pilot courses will get cheaper as the number of training schools increases in the country in the coming days, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on May 17.

Depending on the course and the institute, the fee ranges between Rs 30,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

"As of now, there are 23 Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)-certified schools for drone pilot training. In the next four-five months, as the number of schools increase, I assure you that its fees will also decrease," Scindia said during an interaction with various stakeholders of the ecosystem, including manufacturers, farmers and academics.

Scindia was responding to a Gujarat-based farmer who said there was a dearth of drone pilots in the country.

The high fee for training courses was also flagged during a National Conference on Promotion of Kisan Drones: Issues, Challenges and Way Forward in New Delhi a few weeks back.

The country would need nearly a lakh drone pilots, Scindia had said recently, as he talked about the various uses that these unmanned flying vehicles could be put to.

Talking about the steps taken up by the government to promote the drone industry, Scindia said, "We have directed 12 ministries to use drones for their activities."

Drones could be used for mining surveys, land surveys and in the field of agriculture among others.

At the National Conference on Promotion of Kisan Drones, stakeholders had said there was a problem with drone subsidy implementation.

It was pointed out that the rollout procedure of subsidies was not clear at the state level. They also called for sensitisation videos on crop spraying to create awareness on the use of drones by farmers.

Responding to the demand, DGCA assistant director Manish Gupta said Digital Sky, the online platform hosted by the aviation regulator for various activities related to the management of drones in India, would be fully functional by October 2022.