A minimum safety and quality requirements for drones are being notified by the Ministry of Civil Aviation MoCA on Wednesday, as a way to boost indigenous manufacturing, an official statement said.
The MoCA said on Twitter that the drone certification scheme notified on January 26th, 2022, under Rule 7 of the liberalized Drone Rules, 2021 will help in simpler, faster and transparent type-certification of drones.
This will help the drone manufacturing industry in India grow, along with the liberalised drone rules, airspace map, the PLI production-linked incentive scheme and the Single Window DigitalSky Platform.
It mentioned that India is expected to become the world's largest drone hub by 2030.
The MoCA approved a PLI scheme for drones and drone components, with an allocation of Rs 120 crore over three financial years.
The PLI scheme was a follow-through of the liberalized Drone Rules, 2021, released by the MoCA on August 25, 2021.
The certification criteria mention in the DCS certification scheme will be applied to indigenous drone manufacturers, assemblers as well as importers, according to the MoCA.
The goal of this DCS is to provide the minimum requirements for airworthiness safety and security requirements for drones and enable their evaluation for certification, it stated.
A multi-stakeholder steering committee chaired by a respected professional, who is respected by government and industry alike, will oversee the scheme, along with a QCI Quality Control of India secretariat, it stated.
The 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 MoCA says the manufacturers will have to submit various data and test results in order to submit an application for certification of a drone.