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Aviation Ministry Notifies Drone Certification Scheme To Boost Indigenous Manufacturing

The PLI scheme came as a follow-through of the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021, released by the MoCA on August 25, 2021.

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Aviation Ministry Notifies Drone Certification Scheme To Boost Indigenous Manufacturing
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The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Wednesday notified a drone certification scheme to ensure minimum safety and quality requirements as it will boost indigenous manufacturing, an official statement said.

"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 MoCA said on Twitter.

Along with the liberalized drone rules, airspace map, the PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme and, the single window DigitalSky Platform will help the drone manufacturing industry in India grow, it stated. 

"Another step in making India the drone hub of the world by 2030," it mentioned. The MoCA had on September 16 last year approved a PLI scheme for drones and drone components with an allocation of Rs 120 crore spread over three financial years. 

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The PLI scheme came as a follow-through of the liberalised Drone Rules 2021, released by the MoCA on August 25, 2021. The certification criteria mentioned in the drone certification scheme (DCS) -- which was notified on Wednesday -- will apply to indigenous drone manufacturers, assemblers as well as importers, the MoCA noted.

The objective of this DCS is to provide the minimum requirements for airworthiness -- safety and security requirements -- for drones and enable their evaluation for certification, it mentioned.

A multi-stakeholder steering committee (MSC) chaired by a known professional, respected by government and industry alike, will oversee the scheme, along with a QCI (Quality Control of India) secretariat, it stated.

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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 applying 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.

With PTI inputs.

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