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MoCA: The Drone Rules, 2021
MoCA: The Drone Rules, 2021

August 31, 2021

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On August 26, 2021, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) notified the much awaited Drone Rules, 2021 (Rules). These Rules supersede the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021 (UAS Rules) which came into force on March 12, 2021. In line with NASSCOM’s recommendations, the Rules liberalize the operation of drones in the country for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. These should enable start-ups to implement their plans and open up many use cases. The implementation of the No Permission No Take-Off (NPNT) in a glitch-free manner has been considered under the Rules and a lead time shall be provided before its implementation. (Read our comments on the draft Drone Rules, 2021 here).

The key takeaways of the Rules are:

  1. Scope expanded: The scope of the Rules has been expanded. Earlier, the previous rules allowed drones upto 300kgs of payload. This has been increased to 500kgs.
  2. Improved Ease of Doing Business : The Rules have significantly increased the ease of doing business by relaxing various norms and simplifying the registration process. Some of the key points are:
    • Number of forms/permissions reduced from 25 to 5.
    • Unnecessary approvals abolished.
    • No security clearance required before any registration or licence issuance.
    • Penalty and fee reduced.
  3. More time for industry to implement certain safety features: In line with NASSCOM’s recommendations, the Rules have provided more time to the industry to implement safety features and have defined a minimum time-limit for compliance. Some of the key points are:
    • Implementation of safety features NPNT has been put on hold for the near future.
    • Six months’ time will be provided for compliance to adopt the safety features.
    • A minimum of six-month lead time will be provided for compliance.
  4. No pilot licence is required for nano and micro drones for non-commercial use.
  5. Exceptions have been carved out for research, development, and training. The type certificate, unique ID, prior permission, and remote pilot licence are not required for research, development, and training in the green zone.
  6. Import of drones will be regulated by DGFT.

NASSCOM conducted a workshop with drone start-ups and the feedback on the Rules has been positive. Industry highlighted that the Rules are at par with global policies on drones and that the emphasis now should shift to the operational changes in the drone ecosystem.

In case of any questions or suggestions on the Rules, kindly write to apurva@nasscom.in or jayakumar@nasscom.in.


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Apurva Singh
Senior Policy Associate

Write to me for all things related to FinTech, Drones, Data and Gaming

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