Govt prohibits import of foreign drones

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said that the import of foreign drones has been prohibited by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in order to promote ‘Made-in-India’ drones. This change will be effective immediately from February 9, the ministry said. 

The government will allow certain exceptions to this rule, including allowing drone imports for R&D, defence and security purposes, but with due clearances. 

Moreover, the import of drone components will be ‘free’. The ministry said that the import of drone components will not require any approval. 

“With the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021 (notified on 25th Aug 21), drone airspace map (24th Sep 21), drone PLI scheme (30th Sep 21), UTM policy framework (24th Oct 21), drone certification scheme (26th Jan 22) and single window DigitalSky Platform (26th Jan 22) in place, this is a good time to invest in the Indian drone industry,” the ministry tweeted. 

This development comes amid the government's push to the drone industry. MoCA also recently urged multiple ministries including home affairs, health, defence, information and broadcasting to encourage and promote the use of drones. This came after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget 2022 speech called ‘Drones’ a sunrise sector. She also spoke about the facilitation of ‘Drone Shakti’ through varied applications, Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS), and ‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients.

Also read: Govt asks multiple ministries to promote use of drones

Also read: Budget 2022: Drone industry gets a big boost