The certification criteria mention in the drone certification scheme (DCS) will be applicable to indigenous drone manufacturers, assemblers as well as importers
Looking to make India into a drone manufacturing hub, the government has notified drone certification scheme to ensure minimum safety and quality and make certification of drones simpler, faster and transparent.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) tweeted, “The drone certification scheme notified on January 26, 2022, under Rule 7 of the liberalized Drone Rules, 2021 will help in simpler, faster and transparent type-certification of drones.”
The certification criteria mention in the drone certification scheme (DCS) will be applicable to indigenous drone manufacturers, assemblers as well as importers.
A multi-stakeholder steering committee (MSC) chaired by a known professional, who is respected by government and industry alike, will oversee the scheme, along with a QCI (Quality Control of India) secretariat, it stated.
This MSC will also be supported by a technical committee (TC) and a certification committee (CC) that will be constituted by the QCI, the MoCA mentioned.
The manufacturer, while submitting an application for certification of a drone, will have to submit various data and test results on topics such as weight, type of launch and recovery mechanism installed, speed, range, endurance, battery performance, type of material used in construction, according to the MoCA.
In September 2021, the governemnt had approved a PLI scheme for drones and drone components with an allocation of Rs 120 crore spread over three financial years.
The PLI scheme came as a follow-through of the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021, released by the MoCA on August 25, 2021.
Along with the liberalised drone rules, airspace map, the PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme and the single window DigitalSky Platform, this will help drone manufacturing industry in India, grow, the ministry stated.
