Details of the new rules :IMPORT OF DRONES The Drone Policy now allows for the import of Drones albeit with certain regulatory requirements in place. Entities that intend on importing Drones into India shall first have to obtain an Equipment Type Approval (“ETA”) from the Wireless Planning and Coordination (“WPC”) wing of India’s Department of Telecommunication (“DoT”) for operating Drones in de-licensed frequency bands. De-licensed frequency bands are low frequency bands, which for instance, facilitate communication between connected vehicles in the automotive industry. Drones will now also run on such de-licensed frequency bands. On obtaining the ETAs, the importers are then required to obtain import clearance from the DGCA. Details of the Drone, including the maximum All-Up-Weight, maximum height attainable, foreign manufacturer details, purpose of operations and security clearance (along with other details) are to be provided. Such details shall be vetted by the DGCA and on case-to-case basis, the DGCA shall accordingly provide the import clearance. Based on the import clearance received from the DGCA, the Director General of Foreign Trade (“DGFT”) shall subsequently issue the license for the import of the Drones. Only on obtaining the clearance from DGCA and the license from DGFT can the importers then proceed to obtaining a unique identification number (“UIN”) and unmanned aircraft operator permits (“UAOP”) which are necessary to fly / operate the drone. Processes for obtaining UIN and UAOP are detailed below. However, there is no specific approval process or time-line provided within which the WPC, DGCA and DGFT shall provide the necessary import clearances. Also, it is unclear whether the import clearances would be linked to the online Digital Sky Platform. Thus, there remains ambiguity with respect to the time / effort that may be required for obtaining such clearances. However, importers of Nano sized drones are exempt from DGCA and DGFT import clearances.
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