In order to facilitate the identification of civil drones and drone operators, a one-time opportunity for voluntary disclosure of such drones and drone operators is now being provided by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). The persons in possession of drones are required to submit the information to the government, starting from 14th January 2020 by visiting the Digital Sky portal at https://digitalsky.dgca.gov.in. Drones and Drones operators have to obtain Unique Identification Number (UIN), Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP) and other operational requirements as per the guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which regulates the use of drones in the Indian Airspace.
It was brought to the notice of the Government of India that such drones and drone operators are not complying with the CAR mentioned above the conditions of No Permission-No Takeoff (NPNT) as envisaged in the aforesaid CAR are not mandatory for this purpose whereas if drones are operated without due permission, the aforesaid process of CAR is violated. The deadline to submit the required information to the Government is 31st January 2020.
On successful submission of voluntary disclosure of possessing drone, a Drone Acknowledgement Number (DAN) and an Ownership Acknowledgement Number (OAN) will be issued online which will assist in validation of operations of drones in India. However, the DAN or OAN does not confer any right to operate a drone(s) in India, if it does not fulfill the provisions given in the CAR. Further, ownership of drone(s) in India without a valid DAN or OAN shall invite penal action as per applicable laws.
Any clarification or additional information in this regard may be sought from Digital Sky Help desk at support-digisky@gov.in.
Drones are a technology platform which has wide-ranging applications from photography to agriculture, from infrastructure asset maintenance to insurance. Drones range in size from very small and those that can carry multiple kilograms of payload.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has been working for several years to establish a world leading drone ecosystem in India. To that end, it was necessary to develop global standard drone regulations that would permit, will appropriate safeguards, the commercial application of various drone technologies. The preparation of these drone regulations through a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) has taken multiple years because: (1) drone technologies have been evolving very rapidly; (2) many countries are still experimenting with their drone regulations and no ICAO stands have been developed; and (3) India’s security environment necessitates extra precautions.
