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The Drone Rules, 2021 were released for public consultation by the government on 15th July 2021. The rules came into effect on 25th August 2021 and seek to revamp the regulatory regime for drones. These rules are more permissive and have improved the ease of doing business from the previous two iterations of regulations onRead more

This post provides a brief overview of the draft National Geospatial Policy, 2021 released recently by the Department of Science and Technology of the Indian government, and discusses our comments on the draft policy. In early May 2021, the Department of Science and Technology (“DST”) released a draft National Geospatial Policy (“draft NGP”) for comments.Read more

This post examines the changes brought by the Geospatial Guidelines, 2021, and what they mean for industries relying on the use of geospatial/digital mapping data. You can also read our comments on the draft National Geospatial Policy 2021 here. Introduction: Better maps have been touted as the key to unlocking India’s digital economy[1], and accordingRead more

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has released the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021. We provide a summary of the rules and take a look at some of the key highlights.   In June 2020, the Ministry of Civil Aviation released the draft Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Rules 2020 (UAS Rules or Rules). After seeking comments and holding consultations with stakeholders forRead more

1.Introduction In June 2020, the DGCA published its draft Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2020, which envisages the establishment of an Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management (UTM) System, and sets the stage for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations in India. Many countries[1] around the world have begun implementing UTM systems to facilitate basic drone trafficRead more

I. Introduction In this post, we look at the global regulatory framework with respect to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (“BVLOS”) Operations,[1] with a specific focus at the United States and Europe. We begin by describing the regulatory drone framework in the United States of America and Europe in brief (II), followed by an analysisRead more

The Ministry of Civil Aviation invited comments to the draft Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Rules 2020. These are Ikigai Law’s comments to the draft rules. Ikigai Law has a market-leading drones law practice and has advised a variety of stakeholders: manufacturers, operators, importers, industry association, think tanks and racing leagues. The Economic Times named IkigaiRead more

Introduction The Drone Federation of India (“DFI”) organised a webinar on 12 June, 2020 to discuss the effects of the draft ‘Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2020’ (“Rules”) which the Ministry of Civil Aviation (“MoCA”) had released on 4 June, 2020. The panel consisted of our managing partner, Mr. Anirudh Rastogi, Mr. Neel Mehta, Mr. RahulRead more

Introduction On 4 June 2020, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (“MoCA”) released a draft of the ‘Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2020’ (“Rules/ Draft UAS Rules”).[1] Once enacted, these rules will replace the existing Civil Aviation Requirements (“CAR”)  on “Requirements for Operation of Civil Remotely Piloted Aircraft System”[2] which were issued by the Director General ofRead more

Kishore Jonnalaggada of Drone Aerospace Systems was in conversation with Anirudh Rastogi, founder and managing partner at Ikigai Law on a webinar organised by HasGeek. The entire conversation is available here.  Anirudh breaks down the history of drone regulations in India into three phases: first, pre-2014 when there were no explicit regulations governing drone operations; second, post-2014Read more