Unlike other countries, drone leaking in India has been something of a taboo, mainly due to unclear government policies as well as confidentiality issues. While the theft of non-military UAVs or drones is legal in most other countries and the size of the market is estimated to be over €100 billion worldwide this year, India's restrictive policies have made the profit segment largely inactive Things only changed with the recent pandemic epidemic when law enforcement agencies used drones for surveillance, advertisements, and surveillance of remote situations. Even reports of medical professionals using drones to provide medical assistance have raised questions as to why there aren't clearer laws in the country that allow this extremely useful technology to be used to serve the masses. That could soon change, however, as DGCA, the Indian civil aviation regulatory authority, has given the green light to a consortium of 13 different companies called the Clearsky Flight Consortium, to begin testing beyond line-of-sight drones ( BVLOS) for deliveries. Some of the key companies in this group are hyperlocal delivery brands like Zomato, Swiggy, and Dunzo, with the exception of Spicejet and Asteria Aerospace.
Does this mean your next Zomato order could arrive?
No, not now. To clear expectations, this is just the beginning of a testing phase and these companies will be conducting tests to verify if the drones are capable of carrying payloads or conducting aerial surveys of large field areas, starting in the first week of July. . The DDCA sees this pilot project as a step toward understanding the basic requirements for flying drones out of line of sight before announcing actual regulatory policies on this topic. The test plan is for two months in which the DDCA allowed the companies to test various activities in an airspace of 20 km, isolated from air traffic and sparsely populated. According to the report, companies like Asteria Aerospace will take this opportunity to conduct long-range aerial surveys of pipelines, rail and highways, while hyperlocal delivery companies will be able to use this opportunity to test the feasibility of deliveries. buzz. As a reminder, Zomato already conducted a drone delivery test in 2019 when its drones delivered a payload of around 5 kg and covered a distance of 5 kilometers in just 10 minutes. Although this could be seen as a first step, drone deliveries remain a distant dream for a country like India, where it has taken more than a year, after plans to allow long-distance experimental flights. drone, even to launch the tests.