The growing popularity of drones is hardly unnoticeable, and the pandemic has played a significant role in spiking its requirement. Though many would argue that it is still years away from mass adoption, however it’s safe to say that drone technology is past the initial barriers that technological innovations usually pose. In the recent past, people have successfully used it for government and business purposes. Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles or flying mini-robots, these machines are slowly getting ready to have a strong foothold in our lives in future.
Drone-Market-Segment-InfographicWhere Does India Stand in Drone Technology Adoption
The utility of drones finds many faces today. For instance, reducing time and increasing efficiency, improving productivity and deducting costs, increasing accuracy and maintaining better customer relations by providing good service, etc., are some of the uses that drones have found globally on an industrial scale. However, the year 2020 has taken the importance of drones to the next level. Keeping the pandemic protocols of social distancing and minimal human contact in mind, drones can help with the delivery of essential services like medical equipment, food, goods, or for seeing things beyond general visibility (BVLOS – beyond visual line of sight) etc. At least, these initiatives can be taken to begin the process of getting to know the perks of this vehicle besides also testing their limits.
There are several protocols that are essential for drone deployment, and they are being addressed one by one as we dive into integrating them with our lives. Factors such as remote ID sensing technology for unmanned drone identification, sensor-based infrastructure for identifying artificial flying objects, or neutralization infrastructure for non-compliant drones, etc., are being looked into for licensing and regulatory requirements. Early adopters are looking into basic guidelines like airspace traffic management, airspace integration, or TCL (Technical Capability Levels). Further, regulators are pushing for commercialization and encouraging a crucial number of trials. Back in 2019, in the United States, UPS subsidiary UPS Flight Forward received FAA approval for a drone airline. Additionally, in 2020, brands such as Dunzo, Spicejet, Zomato, and Swiggy got DGCA approvals to go ahead with BVLOS deliveries.
When it comes to a public set-up, operating any BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) system encompasses many components like weather adaptability, collision avoidance, route planning, and much more. While these are functions that offer great help and convenience, they might be questioned by the public when it comes to safety and privacy concerns. The integration of all these pointers is imperative for the smooth functioning of drones.
The Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Civil Aviation has repeatedly mentioned the goal of making India, the ‘Drone hub of the world’, which will require a self-sufficient ecosystem to be created in the country and with an increasing number of drone projects and government tenders, an estimated 70,000 drone pilots will be needed by 2022.
Drone Regulation in India
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently released draft drone regulations that have got the start-up and investor community in India excited about the future prospects for the drone industry. For starters, no specific permissions would be required to fly even large drones (500kg max weight) up to 400ft in “green zones”. The government has already released over 300 green zones and it is being estimated that over 80% of the Indian landmass will come under these. Also, no specific permission would be needed in green zones even for long-range flight, night operations, different payloads, delivery, spraying, etc.
Next would-be yellow zones, which would be in regions close to airports and sensitive installations. Here also minimal automated online permissions would be needed to fly up to 200ft, keeping a distance of at least 12km from airports and other sensitive installations. This would mean that practically in 90-95% of India, smaller drones would be able to fly without much need of lengthy regulatory approval and licenses. The only thing required is to ensure that the drone has compliance certification given by the DGCA or an agency authorized by the government.
Additionally, six months would be provided to get safety compliances like NPNT (No Permission No Take-off) and geofencing. Also nano drones (under 250g drones) and defense drones would be exempt from even these regulations. For yellow and red zones, a simple online approval process would be required and so would be government-certified trained pilots for drones over 2kg. But the total number of forms have been reduced from 25 to 5. Additionally, the DGCA can provide exemptions from even these provisions on a case-by-case basis.
Moreover, trials have started for beyond line-of-sight operations where drones would be able to cover hundreds of kilometers in fully autonomous operations. This would pave the way for ecommerce, food delivery, quick commerce, drone taxis and emergency delivery. A major boost will also come for drone software companies as well, which will provide the platform that drives up this scale.
Drone Technology Adoption in Different Sectors
Some sectors will see exponential growth with the new regulations in place. Firstly, we may see 2-3 unicorns in the drone delivery space, especially for enabling quick commerce, doing millions of deliveries every day. The deliveries will probably be done at a fulfilment centre or a guard room in an apartment complex instead of individual houses. With drones up to 500kg being allowed, they could also replace small truck-based deliveries in B2B operations.
The next big sector would be mapping. The government recently allowed mapping to be done by private entities to boost this sector. We will see drones map every nook and corner of India at a centimeter-level resolution. We have already seen this happening in the ‘Swamitva’ scheme where it plans to map all 6 lakh villages in India.
The next big thing will be drone-based agriculture. Drones will be used for detecting crop problems in advance and precision spraying. This will be a round-the-year activity required in almost 50% of India’s landmass. It will be a big boon for farmers as drones have been shown to boost agricultural productivity by up to 20-25%. It will also generate lakhs of jobs locally for drone pilots and technicians.
Another sector which is already booming would be drone-based industrial assets’ inspection. This is especially useful for tall structures like cellphone towers, power line towers, chimneys, flares, cooling towers, etc.
The next push would come for monitoring of construction projects; be it buildings, highways, or railways. This will be useful in project monitoring, insurance assessment, repair assessment, etc. The NHAI has already announced that all its road projects will mandatorily require drone data capturing and assessment. In the coming few years, a new sector that will emerge would be drone-based taxis, with the government allowing up to 500kg drones in green zones. These taxis would be able to carry 1-2 people within a range of about 50-100km within a city in a matter of minutes, cutting out traffic. They will require very little space for landing and take-off compared to a traditional helicopter. Also, being battery-powered, they will have a much lower operating and maintenance cost.
Seeing all these probable developments, we at ‘Untapped Markets’ believe that there is huge potential for this industry. The industry is currently at nascent stage and is highly untapped, however it could reap exponential rewards for players with first mover advantage.
