Drone Technology

Table of Contents

Context: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has successfully conducted a trial run of delivery of blood bags under its iDrone initiative.

What is Drone Technology?

A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle that receives remote commands from a pilot or relies on software for autonomous flight.
Classification of Drones Based on Weight:
- Nano drone: less than or equal to 250 grams;
- Micro drone: greater than 250 grams and less than or equal to 2 kilograms
- Small drone: greater than 2 kilograms and less than or equal to 25 kilograms
- Medium drone: greater than 25 kilograms and less than or equal to 150 kilograms.
- Large drone: greater than 150 kilograms.

What are the Applications of Drones?

Agriculture
- Crop and soil health monitoring
- Irrigation estimation and scheduling
- Requirement and efficacy assessment of fertilizer and pesticide spraying
- Anti-locust operations
- Crop output estimates
- River and canal erosion; restoration tracking
- Insurance claim surveys
Healthcare
- Delivery of medicines, equipment and other supplies
- Pathology tests – sample collection from remote or epidemic/ pandemic affected areas
Defence
- Security Surveillance
- Combat
- Communication in remote areas
- Swarm drone solutions
- Counter drone solutions
Mapping
- Land records and property rights
- The drone technology in the SVAMITVA scheme launched by the Government of India helped village residents get their property cards by mapping out the abadi areas.
Surveillance: Surveillance, situational analysis, public announcements and evidence gathering for:
- Security of sensitive installations
- Raids and counter-terror operations
- Crowd management
- Crime control
- VVIP security
- Disaster management; search and rescue
- Traffic management
Housing
- Urban planning and management
- Construction planning and monitoring
- Incident reporting
- Prevention of encroachment and land-use alteration
Environment:
- Monitoring of forests and wildlife
- Afforestation through seed-balls, irrigation and real-time monitoring
- Anti-poaching actions
- Pollution assessment and evidence-gathering

Government of India’s Initiatives for Promoting Drone Technology

Liberalised Drones Rules, 2021: These provide the necessary regulatory framework for commercial use of drones.
- Compliances and fees required to operate drones have been reduced.
- The need for a security clearance before any registration or issuance of licence has been dispensed with.
- R&D entities have been provided blanket exemption from all kinds of permissions.
- Restrictions on foreign-owned companies registered in India have also been removed.
Drone Response and Outreach in North East (i-Drone) Initiative: It facilitates vaccine delivery to tough and hard-to-reach terrains of India. The i-DRONE was first used during the COVID-19 pandemic by the ICMR for distributing vaccines to remote areas.
Drone Shakti initiative: It aims to promote and facilitate drones as a service through start-ups.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Drones: The objective of this scheme is to incentivize the manufacturing of drones and drone components in India with a focus to make the indigenous’ industries globally competitive.
- Support under the scheme will be provided only to companies engaged in the manufacturing of drones and drone components in India.
- PLI scheme for drones can generate investment of over Rs 5,000 crore and 10,000 direct jobs in India’s drone manufacturing sector till FY24.
- The PLI scheme is also expected to boost the total turnover of the domestic industry to Rs 900 crore in FY24.
Drone Import Policy: The Indian Government has banned the import of drones except for R&D, defence and security purposes. The move is aimed at giving a boost to domestic manufacturing of drones.
Make in India: The Government’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (Make-in-India) drive is going all out to support domestic enterprises by fine-tuning policies and regulations so that more and more products are manufactured within the country.
Drone Training Schools: These have been set up in various States which have the potential of being a game changer in the promotion and development of drone applications.

What are the Challenges Associated with Drones?

Safety of the Public: In a case of an accident, the drone may fall in a residential area and injure the public. Military drones have crashed and caused huge damages in these areas.
Increased drone attacks: Drones are relatively cheaper in comparison to conventional weapons and yet can achieve far more destructive results which is the primary reason for increased number of drone attacks.
Delivery of Mass Destruction Weapons: Combat drones are most dangerous as they can be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction.
Use in Attacks: The potential use of drones in a terrorist incident or attack against a critical infrastructure and soft targets is a growing concern for law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Safety of Drone: There is a possibility of losing the package carried by the drones. Hackers can hijack a Drone using GPS jammers and loot the Drone or its payload. Softwares resistant to hacking have to be developed.
Swarm Drones: Swarm drones have been a problem for military where scores of drones overwhelm and confuse detection systems, resulting in some of the drones sneaking through.

Way Forward

Drones can be significant creators of employment. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, Indian agriculture can help boost the country’s GDP by 1-1.5% and create at least five lakh jobs in the coming years.
To leverage the benefits of drone technology, India needs to invest in its own Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems.
Though the Defence Research and Development Organisation has developed a detect-and-destroy technology for drones, but it is not yet into mass production.
Establishment of an inter-ministerial committee on drones is necessary for fostering better coordination among various ministries.
There needs to be more initiatives by the private sector such as Drone Yatra 2.0 by Garuda Aerospace that aim at spreading awareness about the opportunities for skilled drone pilots/maintainers.
It can be concluded that drones can lead to economic growth due to their reach, versatility, and ease of use, especially in India’s remote and inaccessible areas.
In view of its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and huge domestic demand, India has the potential to be global drone hub by 2030.