Ministry of Civil Aviation Notifies Liberalised Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Rules, 2021

In March 2021, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) published the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Rules, 2021. The existing regulations were perceived by the end users and stake holders as being restrictive in nature as they involved considerable paperwork, required permission for every UAS flight and very few “free-to-fly” green zones were available. Based on the feedback, the Government decided to repeal the UAS Rules, 2021 and replace these with the liberalised UAS Rules, 2021 which were posted by MoCA on August 26. There are 30 key features like the rules are built on a premise of trust, self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring. The Government aims to become a global UAS hub by 2030 due to India’s traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and huge domestic demand.