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BHARAT DRONE MAHOTSAV 2022

BHARAT DRONE MAHOTSAV 2022

Why in News?

Recently, India's biggest Drone Festival - Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 was inaugurated in New Delhi by the Prime Minister.

About

• A virtual award of drone pilot certificates, panel discussions, product launches, display of a ‘Made in India’ Drone Taxi prototype, flying demonstrations, among others were the key events.
• Drone is a layman terminology for Unmanned Aircraft (UA).
• Originally developed for the military and aerospace industries, drones have found their way into the mainstream because of the enhanced levels of safety and efficiency they bring.
• A drone’s autonomy level can range from remotely piloted (a human controls its movements) to advanced autonomy, which means that it relies on a system of sensors and LIDAR detectors to calculate its movement.

Applications of Drone Technology

Agriculture - In the agriculture sector, micronutrients can be spread with the help of drones. It can also be used for performing surveys for identifying the challenges faced by the farmers.

Defence - Drone system can be used as a symmetric weapon against terrorist attacks. Drones can be integrated into the national airspace system. Deployment of drones for combat, communication in remote areas, counter-drone solutions can be done.

Healthcare Delivery Purposes - Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) devised Drone-Based Vaccine Delivery Model, i-drone. Telangana and North-east states have been approved to use this drone technology for delivering vaccines in remote areas.

Monitoring - The drone technology in the SVAMITVA scheme launched by the Government of India, within less than a year, has helped about half a million village residents to get their property cards by mapping out the densely-populated areas. Drones can be used for real-time surveillance of assets and transmission lines, theft prevention, visual inspection/maintenance, construction planning and management, etc. They can be used for anti-poaching actions, monitoring of forests and wildlife, pollution assessment, and evidence gathering.

Drone Rules, 2021

• In 2021, the Ministry notified liberalized drone rules with the aim to encourage R&D and to make India a drone hub.
• It abolished several permissions and approvals. The number of forms that need to be filled was reduced from 25 to five and the types of fee brought down from 72 to 4.
• No permission is required for operating drones in green zones and no remote pilot license is necessary for non-commercial use of micro and nano drones.
• Payloads up to 500kg have been allowed so the drones can be used as unmanned flying taxis.
• Further, foreign ownership of companies operating drones has also been permitted.

A few months earlier, there were a lot of restrictions on drones. However, most of the restrictions have now been removed in a very short span of time. Easy access to technology will help in furthering the vision of saturation and in ensuring last-mile delivery. Government is trying to make technology available to the masses to impart new strength, speed and scale to the country.