Ministry of Civil Aviation urges various ministries to promote use of drones

New Delhi : Ministry of Civil Aviation has requested several Ministries including Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to encourage various entities under their administrative control to promote use of drones.

Drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy like -agriculture, medicine delivery, mining, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transportation, geo-spatial mapping, defence and law enforcement etc. An illustrative list of drone applications under different Ministries is attached herewith as Annexure- I.

As per Drone Rules, 2021, operation of drones in zones marked red and yellow on the drone airspace map zones requires permission from the Central Government and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) authority respectively. No permission is required to operate a drone in a green zone which is where most of the drone operations currently happen.

Annexure -I

Illustrative list of drone applications under different Union Ministries

S No	Ministry	Illustrative drone applications
	Agriculture & Farmers Welfare	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
	Health & Family Welfare	Delivery of medicines, equipment and other supplies Pathology tests – sample collection from remote or epidemic/ pandemic affected areas
	Panchayati Raj	Land records and property rights (SVAMITVA Scheme)
	Defence	Surveillance Combat Communication in remote areas Swarm drone solutions Counter drone solutions
	Home Affairs	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; transportation of food, medicines and essentials Traffic management
	Housing and Urban Affairs	Urban planning and management Construction planning and monitoring Incident reporting Prevention of encroachment and land-use alteration
	Transportation: Road Transport and Highways; Railways; Ports, Shipping and Waterways	Surveillance Incident response Inspection and maintenance Project monitoring Disaster management
	Mining	Monitoring and Inspection Automatic surveying and mapping Stockpile assessment and management Haulage road optimisation
	Power	Real-time surveillance of assets and transmission lines Theft prevention and incident response Visual inspection and maintenance Construction plannlng and management
	Petroleum and Natural Gas	Real-time surveillance of assets and pipelines Theft prevention and incident response Visual inspection and maintenance Construction planning and management
	Environment, Forests and Climate Change	Monitoring of forests and wildlife Afforestation through seed-balls, irrigation and real-time monitoring Anti-poaching actions Pollution assessment and evidence-gathering
	Information and Broadcasting	High quality videography of events and difficult-to-reach-places at a fraction of the cost and approvals required Low altitude shooting without noise and-dust pollution and risk of accidents Complete replacement of costly helicopter- based videography

Note:

The above list is illustrative and not exhaustive. New applications may evolve with time, usage and further innovations.
The above list has been prepared in consultation with academia, drone startups and industry bodies.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry Of Civil Aviation (Gen. (Dr) V. K.Singh (Retd) in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

drone Ministry of Civil Aviation