Where do wing-clipped drones fly? In the illegal zone

A ban on flying drones may have secured India’s civilian airspace but has given rise to an unregulated drone enterprise services market

The global drone industry is on its way to becoming a $127-billion-market by 2020

It has almost been two and half years since the DGCA banned flying drones for civil purposes

The draft regulations on drones were prepared in April 2016, but nothing has been finalised so far

After the ban, most of the drone companies started vying for government projects

Last year, a Mumbai-based drone startup conducted an inspection of power lines in Gujarat for a large power company, part of a leading conglomerate in India. And that’s one of the services that the company provides for some of its big clients.

A two and a half year ban on drones in India may have secured the country’s civilian airspace from soaring unidentified objects, but it has thrown up another challenge. An unregulated drone enterprise services market, which Indian authorities would most probably stamp as illegal, has taken roots.

“Every second enterprise is keen to use drones for surveys, asset monitoring and collecting relevant data,” says the founder of the company mentioned above.

AUTHOR

Moulishree Srivastava

Moulishree has over five years of experience in journalism. In her previous assignment, she was a Principal Correspondent for Business Standard where she wrote on technology and telecom. Prior to Business Standard, she was at Mint, where she wrote on various subjects — tourism, hospitality, real estate, science, cyber security and technology. Moulishree graduated as an engineer in Information Technology from Chandigarh Engineering College. She worked as a software engineer briefly but then took a detour and got her journalism degree from IIJNM, Bangalore. She will be based in Bangalore and you can reach her at her [email protected]

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