India’s drone trade is awaiting a revolution with the potential to rework sectors like agriculture, infrastructure, and safety. Nevertheless, regulatory hurdles and slower approval processes proceed to maintain this trade grounded.
In an insightful dialog with AIM, Skylark Drones co-founder and CEO Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy gave first-hand insights into the affect of those delays on innovation and enterprise progress.
Drones might revolutionise infrastructure monitoring, agriculture, regulation enforcement, and catastrophe response. Nevertheless, he revealed that the corporate nonetheless doesn’t have permission to fly drones in some areas of Bengaluru.
As of September final yr, 10,208 type-certified industrial drones have been registered below the Digital Sky Platform, a digital system for managing drone operations in India, as per MoS civil aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, in a latest Rajya Sabha Q&A session.
The Directorate Normal of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued 96 kind certificates for various drone fashions based mostly on their objective. Of those, 65 fashions are designed for agricultural purposes, whereas 31 are targeted on logistics and surveillance.
These figures spotlight the rising adoption of drone know-how, significantly in agriculture, the place drones are more and more used for crop spraying, monitoring, and yield evaluation.
Regulatory Roadblocks
Regardless of a sequence of coverage reforms geared toward streamlining drone operations, challenges in acquiring clearances and navigating airspace restrictions have created bottlenecks which can be slowing down innovation and adoption.
“To fly a drone in a metropolis, you want approval from a number of companies – HAL airport, CISF, the Commissioner’s workplace, and so many others,” Ramasamy mentioned. Regardless of authorities initiatives, getting approvals for drone operations stays an uphill battle.
One of many main regulatory challenges the trade faces is restricted airspace entry. Below The Drone Guidelines 2021, India’s airspace is split into three classes: pink, yellow, and inexperienced zones. Whereas 86% of the nation’s airspace falls below the inexperienced zone, the place drone operations don’t require particular permissions, the remaining areas are closely regulated.
Pink zones, totalling roughly 9,969, require particular approvals from the civil aviation ministry and the involved zone authorities earlier than any operations can happen. Yellow zones, usually positioned round airports, require permission from air visitors management (ATC) earlier than drone operations can start.
This zoning system, whereas important for security, has created delays in acquiring crucial approvals, particularly in city areas the place drone-based providers like e-commerce deliveries, medical provide transport, and infrastructure monitoring might be transformative.
The most important problem is that there is no such thing as a central platform the place one can apply for permission. “All the things nonetheless runs on pen and paper, or at greatest, e-mail, which is simply digital paper,” Ramasamy defined.
Bodhisattwa Sanghapriya, founder and CEO of IG Drones, instructed AIM that whereas the federal government has made progress in easing compliance, sooner clearances for trusted home gamers will additional speed up trade progress.
By prioritising dependable drone producers and answer suppliers, India can strengthen nationwide safety whereas enhancing the nation’s capabilities in surveillance, infrastructure monitoring, and catastrophe response.
The regulatory panorama for drones in India has improved considerably, with the federal government actively streamlining approval processes and selling indigenous know-how.
“Though some operational challenges stay, significantly in securing approvals for delicate zones equivalent to defence areas and no-drone zones, the regulatory mechanism is way more streamlined than earlier than,” Sanghapriya added.
He additional mentioned that in comparison with earlier years, regulatory delays have been diminished, significantly for startups manufacturing 100% made-in-India drones with no Chinese language parts. This aligns with the federal government’s imaginative and prescient for Atmanirbhar Bharat and its push to make India a worldwide drone hub by 2030.
Provide vs Demand: The Actual Challenge
The regulatory delays don’t simply have an effect on drone startups; they affect enterprises, authorities initiatives, and the broader ecosystem. Ramasamy identified that whereas India has targeted on incentivising drone manufacturing, actual progress will solely occur when demand is created.
“Greater than subsidies, the federal government must create actual use circumstances that push adoption,” he added. Till then, navigating the regulatory maze will stay one of many largest roadblocks to India’s drone revolution.
Although the Manufacturing Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for drone and drone parts didn’t see any allocation within the latest Union Funds 2025, the federal government has prioritised funding for the house tech trade as a complete.
Notably, the federal government has allotted ₹676.85 crore to the Namo Drone Didi program as a part of its Central Sector Schemes. Regardless, the trade has but to take centre stage within the Funds.
Whereas China’s DJI dominates the worldwide drone market with totally built-in unmanned aerial automobile (UAV) programs, India continues to wrestle with roadblocks regardless of each nations having began on related grounds for innovation.
What’s the Authorities Doing?
The federal government has taken a number of steps to ease the regulatory burden on drone operators. Extra lately, in August 2024, the federal government amended The Drone Guidelines to simplify the registration course of by eradicating the requirement for a passport.
“Now, a government-issued proof of identification and handle, i.e. Voter ID, Ration Card or Driving License, can now be accepted for registration and de-registration or switch of drones,” Mohol defined.
Regardless of these enhancements, coverage bottlenecks stay a priority. For example, drone-based supply providers, which have the potential to enhance healthcare entry in distant areas, face operational delays attributable to prolonged bureaucratic approvals.
Equally, drone surveying and mapping within the infrastructure sector require clearances from a number of authorities, resulting in venture slowdowns.
As per Mohol, the federal government claims to be working in direction of addressing these challenges. One vital security measure carried out is the requirement for all licensed drones to have a tamper-avoidance mechanism that protects each the firmware and {hardware} from unauthorised entry. This ensures that drones utilized in crucial sectors stay safe and proof against hacking.
Nevertheless, for India to totally harness the advantages of drone know-how, additional reforms are wanted. The Digital Sky platform have to be enhanced to allow real-time digital approvals for operations in restricted zones.
Moreover, increasing monetary incentives and selling drone adoption in sectors past agriculture can be key to unlocking new alternatives.
The publish Are Regulatory Delays Slowing Down the Indian Drone Revolution? appeared first on Analytics India Journal.
