The Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Bhubaneswar has decided to offer drone pilot training to its trainees.

The institute on Monday signed an MoU with IG Drones, a firm that provides drone solutions and pilot training across India. As per the pact, IG Drones will set up a ‘Drone Excellence Center’ having high-end workstations and flying simulators powered by the latest software and equipment to facilitate the training.

Apart from training, IG Drones will be responsible for providing safety gears to be used while on-field training, maintenance tools for the annual maintenance of the drones, engaging personnel for industrial standard on-field training and placement support for the trained pilots.

On its part, the Government ITI, Bhubaneswar will provide a space of 2,000 sq ft for setting up of the lab. The duration of the course will be for six months. On successful completion of training, the trainees will be assessed by the National Council for Vocational Education and Training as well as IG Drones and awarded the national trade certificate in Drone Piloting and Development Trade.

The MoU was signed between ITI Bhubaneswar Principal Jeetamitra Satpathy and Skill Development head and board member head of IG Drones Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra.

Satpathy said that the course will be offered to the trainees as soon as the new academic session begins. Sources said the State Government also has plans to introduce the drone pilot training course in ITI Cuttack.

Source:-https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bhubaneswar/2020/dec/22/iti-bhubaneswar-to-offer-training-in-drone-piloting-2239426.html

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has revealed the names of the members in India’s Drone Directorate — a dedicated body under the Civil Aviation Ministry that will focus solely on drones. The government had announced the formation of the Directorate in November. It was to be comprised entirely of DGCA officials, but the names of members hadn’t been disclosed.

Following are members of the Drones Directorate:

1. Hillol Biswas, Director, Aircraft Engineering
2. R.P. Kashyap, Deputy Director, Air Traffic Control Organisation
3. K. Thulasiraman, Deputy Director, Aircraft Engineering
4. Manish Gupta, Assistant Director, Aircraft Engineering
5. Yogendra Kumar, Assistant Director, Airworthiness
6. Ajay Pal Ogrey, Operations Officer
7. Praveen Kumar Singh, Aeronautical Officer
8. Manish (It isn’t clear which department in the DGCA this person belongs to)

The Finance Ministry had given its nod to set up the Directorate in November; the department will increase in size with time. The Directorate will help in creating more focus on the drones’ ecosystem, given that both DGCA, and the Civil Aviation Ministry have traditionally prioritised civil aviation operations over drones

What the Directorate could look into: A dedicated draft legislation for drone use in the country was published in June, and the rules are currently in the draft stage, and the Directorate could look into finalising these rules.

There is another important thing that the Directorate could look into: the multiple delays in rolling out “no permission, no takeoff” (NPNT) support to the Digital Sky platform. India’s drone rules mandate that only NPNT-compliant drones be allowed to fly, however, given that the functionality is yet to be baked into the Digital Sky platform, this provision has rarely been met.

How India’s drone space has changed over the last one year: The idea to set up a dedicated Drones Directorate was first proposed in 2019, by the then Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha, particularly to issue guidelines for drone operations, and for handling certification of drone pilots, among other things. Since then, the drone ecosystem has changed quite significantly:

• Multiple drone training schools have been approved by the DGCA to train and certify drone operators — a prerequisite for obtaining a drone pilot license — and very recently had its first batch of certified drone pilots.
• The DGCA has approved a third-party drone certification scheme to fast track drone certification in the country.
• Insurance regulator, IRDAI, formed a working committee to look into drone insurance, and the group had already come out with a working paper. A few banks have also started offering drone insurance plans.

While the government is building the entire infrastructure for drone use in the country, it is also slowly and steadily allowing for more drone use. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a number of state governments deploy surveillance drones for containment exercises, but even beyond the pandemic, drones are now being deployed in multiple areas — including at critical infrastructure such as thermal power plants as well as it is also said that Drones can play a major role for the delivery of Vaccine for Covid-19 now as well as in future.

Source:-https://www.medianama.com/2020/12/223-drones-directorate-members/

As we reach closer in the quest for an effective Covid-19 vaccine, with Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford AstraZeneca announcing more than 90 per cent efficacy, governments around the world, including in India, are getting ready for mass vaccination programmes. The Narendra Modi government expects the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin to be available by January 2021 and four more vaccines by the end of April. The main challenge, however, would be in delivering the vaccine to every corner of the country – to the last mile.

India has a well-laid vaccination delivery system owing to its universal immunisation programmes. But in the case of Covid-19, it will be a mammoth task. India can rely on its one of the world’s largest railways and road networks, but looking at the enormity of the situation and the country’s topography, a new, efficient method of transporting vaccines would be required. This is where the drone-based distribution system comes in.

Since late 2018, countries have started deploying drones to deliver vaccines – the small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu was the first one to do it. In 2019, Ghana started off one of the largest drone delivery vaccine networks in the world. The service operates 24-hours a day all week with a force of 30 drones serving nearly 12 million people of the country. During the Covid-19 crisis, drones also carried testing kits across Ghana. In Rwanda, drones are supplying blood and medical supplies to several locations across the country. At present, drones carry more than 35 per cent of Rwanda’s national blood transfusion service supply through a network of 21 remotely located clinics.

Sporadic use of drones in India

There are instances of drone usage in emergency situations in India as well. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) used drones during the Uttarakhand floods in 2013, and again during Kerala floods in 2018. In 2019, during the forest fires at Bandipur in Karnataka, the forest department administered drones to tackle the situation. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been used by the Indian armed forces on many occasions – during avalanches in the Siachen region, terrorist attacks at Pulwama and Uri, counter-insurgency operations and so on.

In the field of medical supplies, there have been sporadic attempts in India to promote the usage of drones. According to The Indian Express, in September 2019, the Maharashtra government and Zipline, a drone delivery service, “announced a partnership to use a logistics network of autonomous delivery drones to help transform emergency medicine and critical care”. Similarly, the Drone Application and Research Centre (DARC) of Uttarakhand recently conducted successful trials to deliver vaccines in remote areas. The state government is also planning to collaborate with private players to expand the scope of the project.

In 2018, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) came out with Drone Regulation 1.0 with a mentionable directive “no permission, no takeoff” and restricted Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. The regulation enforced strict rules for drone service providers and even emergency organisations of government required permission under certain conditions.

A policy paper discussing the Drone Regulation 2.0 was released by the DGCA in 2019, which is yet to be implemented. Regulation 2.0 seeks to permit BVLOS operations, mandates “privacy by design” and allows 100 per cent FDI into Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). While Regulation 1.0 allows for restricted operations, the draft Regulation 2.0 proposes relaxed guidelines allowing for commercial capacity utilisation.

Can’t leave a revolutionary tech behind

The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing challenges are not normal circumstances and therefore warrant a congruent but differential action from the Modi government. A draft discussion paper was released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) in November 2020, laying down guidelines for seamless integration of Digital Sky Platform with various service providers and stakeholders. The draft policy document, more importantly, acknowledges the growth in UAVs in India but unfortunately misses the word ‘vaccine’ in its entire length. The document, however, holds promise for requisite government action for drone use in vaccine delivery.

The DGCA, through Digital Sky Platform, can identify and pre-approve certain UAVs for operations beyond Class G, or uncontrolled airspace, as long as service providers retrofit drones with real-time identification and tracking (RIT) if missing. Permission artefacts, or digitally encrypted key for flying, may be cleared in batches or pre-issued subject to the UAVs’ fulfilment of procedural and operational safety norms. The policy document also suggests that all data must be held within the territorial bounds of India which, if mandated, can ease any national security concerns. What we thus propose is a conditional relaxation of “no permission, no flight” rule.

‘Business with trust’ should be the way ahead. Industry stakeholders and government agencies can utilise their capacity for last-mile delivery of vaccines, the feasibility and usefulness of which has already been tested and established, in a country where the Himalayas begin and deserts end. Lack of conducive policy is an impediment imposed on current capacity utilisation. Consultation with industry and stakeholders, and the roll-out of an enabler policy, even pro-term, must be accorded a high position in the government’s priority list of actions.

India’s goal of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and a $5 trillion economy isn’t achievable by leaving behind a flexible, multi-purpose and multi-functional revolutionary technology that can augment the capacity of available workforce in our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Source:- The Print.

Detection: Temperature Check

Would you believe that China uses drones to limit the deadly spread of Covid-19? They do! Why were drones implemented? Before drones, especially in densely populated China regions, a thermal temperature check was conducted before admitting dwellers into apartment buildings. This approach is a simple yet effective screener for potentially detecting infected people – because one of the key symptoms of the virus is high fever. However, there is one big problem: the personnel conducting these infrared thermometer checks are close to each person, thereby increasing the chances of getting the infection and becoming spreaders. To reduce this risk point, drones with infrared cameras were implemented to measure body temperature. As a result, safe temperature inspections can be conducted from a distance, in the air, with surprising accuracy.

Distribution

The spread of the Covid-19 virus has created a global pandemic of scale not seen in almost a century. In the US, there have been over 15,000,000 cases of infection and almost 300,000 deaths. As a result, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people socially distance themselves, limit exposure, and stay home to mitigate the spread and infection.

The dramatic increase of the Covid-19 infection has dramatically affected the economy and has created an enormous strain on package and food delivery systems. To make matters worse, food delivery systems are strong candidates for deadly contamination. So, how can drones help in this situation? Well, drones have proven to be a remarkably efficient and contactless method of handing off critical food and medical supplies. Furthermore, a large number of drones can be easily modified to handle a small payload – complete with a unique drop mechanism that can effectively deliver small packages up to 6 kgs without risk to any recipients. This benefit of contactless delivery is critical in areas where the virus’s presence is confirmed, such as hospitals.

Distancing

In the era of Covid-19, social distancing in public spaces is critical to reducing infection spread. Unfortunately, not everyone obeys the rules. What better way to promote social distancing rules than through the use of drones. Why drones? Because at high altitudes, drones are far more efficient at scanning dense, urban landscape. With a loudspeaker attached to a drone, local police authorities can effectively communicate with the public and enforce desired behavior by broadcasting key messages that will keep everyone safe! For example, a drone can easily spot a crowd of people who are not socially distancing themselves, fly down to that location and ask them to either disperse or put on their face mask. Furthermore, the authorities can keep people safe by warning them where infected areas are – and redirect traffic accordingly.

Disinfecting

The commercial use of industrial drones in numerous applications makes them a powerful new platform for good. Another powerful use case scenario for drones – in the era of Covid-19 – is in its ability to disinfect a large swathe of land. In a serious effort to disinfect public spaces in major metropolitan cities – and prevent further spread of Coronavirus, local health authorities are using specialized agricultural spraying drones to disinfect large areas quickly – and more efficiently.

Why use drones in disinfecting large public spaces? Because the speed, efficiency, and coverage of disinfectant drones have no rival. Drones’ coverage efficiency is unparallel to anything else being used to date. According to the World Economic Forum, drones’ spray distribution is more than 50x more efficient than manual spraying. Drone giant DJI noted that spraying agricultural drones can cover 100,000 m2 in an hour with a spraying tank of 16L.

In summary, drones are proving themselves as a surprisingly useful tool in fighting the Covid-19 virus worldwide. This is just the beginning of a new, flying platform that will continue to find new ways to serve mankind for the good!

Source:-Charles A Wimbley

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-ways-drones-help-humankind-fight-covid-19-charles-l-wimbley/?trackingId=B0%2BCcA5VRxG4G2tpv6NeyA%3D%3D

Routing Software

Every delivery service can benefit from using routing software. After all, the more optimized a delivery route is, the less time delivery drivers or cyclists need to spend on roads. In turn, that means the delivery company saves costs like labor and fuel. The best software for optimizing your delivery route is based on detailed factors like the size of parcels, the vehicle capacity, the number of stops being completed, and much more, enabling delivery companies to run much more accurately and efficiently. As technology continues to grow, routing software is becoming more sophisticated. For instance, with artificial intelligence and machine learning, predictions can be made, and recommendations can be put into action in real-time.

Smart Mailboxes

Everything is gradually becoming Smart, so it makes sense that a smart mailbox has been developed. The MailHaven mailbox can track and protect packages. The Internet of Things-enabled mailbox works with a mobile app that provides alerts when packages are delivered, and it keeps items safe from thieves and bad weather. Knowing packages left in mailboxes are safe can help delivery service companies avoid claims of packages going missing.

The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things is revolutionizing the delivery service industry in many ways besides smart mailboxes. Indeed, it is completely transforming delivery operations. IoT is used in multiple ways. For example, you can get IoT sensors that monitor fuel consumption, cornering speeds, locations, and even packages’ temperature.

RFID Tags 

By attaching an RFID tag to a package, it can easily be tracked and monitored throughout its journey. That is possible because each electromagnetically-responsive RFID tag is embedded with unique information. The micro-circuitry of an RFID tag is identifiable by radio waves and is powered by its internal battery. The size of RFID tags depends on the number of data strings it has, but they can be as thin as paper labels.

Delivery Drones

It is well known that companies like Amazon are planning to roll out fleets of drones to deliver products in the future. However, many people do not realize that drones are already starting to be used in many different ways in the delivery service industry. For example, in 2016, Mercedes debuted its concept van that features autonomous drones mounted on the roof and a robotic package sorting system. Packages are not loaded individually. Instead, the whole cargo section of the van pulls out. Inside the van is a robotic arm. When the driver reaches the desired destination, the arm loads the package onto the drone. The drone is then deployed to its destination.

The Directorate, while primarily focusing on managing the drones’ ecosystem in the country, will also look into delays in rolling out permissions, managing drone training schools and fast tracking drone certifications.

Referring to the approval, Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary at the Civil Aviation Ministry shared through a LinkedIn post,  “Congratulations to DGCA for getting the finance ministry’s approval to set up a separate Drones Directorate. The Directorate had been established with eight DGCA officials to begin with and will be expanded with time. This was a pleasant surprise since under the Covid-19 austerity measures, formation of any new government department is being discouraged. One more baby step towards making India the drone capital of the world.”

 the Directorate will have its own financial budget, which is presumably why the DGCA had to receive approval from the Finance Ministry. Another industry source said that the Directorate will help in creating more focus on the drones’ ecosystem, given that both DGCA, and the Civil Aviation Ministry have traditionally prioritised civil aviation operations over drones.

“Getting a single function to look at all the aspects of operations is going to reduce the need for running around to get a complete picture. We see this as a much needed focused measure where all the functions are equally motivated to do dedicated efforts on making India the drone capital of the world,” Ankit Mehta, co-founder and CEO of drone maker ideaForge told in a statement.

What the Directorate could look into: A dedicated draft legislation for drone use in the country was published in June, and the rules are currently in the draft stage, and the Directorate could look into finalising these rules.

There is another important thing that the Directorate could look into: the multiple delays to rolling out no permission, no takeoff (NPNT) support to the Digital Sky platform. India’s drone rules mandate that only NPNT-compliant drones be allowed to fly, however, given that the functionality is yet to be baked into the Digital Sky platform, this provision has rarely been fulfilled.

How India’s drone space has changed over the last one year: The idea to set up a dedicated Drones Directorate was first proposed in 2019, by the then Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha, particularly to issue guidelines for drone operations, and for handling certification of drone pilots, among other things. Since then, the drone ecosystem has changed quite significantly:

• Multiple drone training schools have been approved by the DGCA to train and certify drone operators — a prerequisite for obtaining a drone pilot license — and very recently had its first batch of certified drone pilots.
• The DGCA has approved a third-party drone certification scheme to fast track drone certification in the country.
• Insurance regulator, IRDAI, formed a working committee to look into drone insurance, and the group had already come out with a working paper. A few banks have also started offering drone insurance plans.

While the government is building the entire infrastructure for drone use in the country, it is also slowly and steadily allowing for more drone use. 

Source:- https://www.geospatialworld.net/news/india-gets-a-drones-directorate/

India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation has released the discussion draft of the National Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management Policy 1.0 for public consultation following several months of stakeholder collaboration. The document outlines the architecture, concept of operations and deployment plan for enabling UTM ecosystem in India. The ministry requests feedback by 30 December 2020 in the format provided in Appendix 5 of the document.

The National UTM Committee is made up of representatives from different ministries, regulators, armed forces, security agencies and the drone industry.

To access the discussion document visit: https://www.civilaviation.gov.in/sites/default/files/National-UTM-Policy-Dicussion-Draft-30-Nov-2020.pdf

For more information visit:

www.civilaviation.gov.in

DEHRADUN: Even as reports of COVID-19 vaccination likely to start in the coming weeks surfaced, the Drone Application and Research Centre (DARC) under the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA) is setting up its devices to supply the vaccine in the remote areas of the hill state. 

“Successful trials have been conducted last month to deliver vaccines in remote areas of the hills. This can be an effective method to deliver vaccines in less time and cost,” says Amit Sinha, inspector general, Uttarakhand police and director of ITDA.

In a trial flight, a fixed-wing drone carrying a vaccine of a disease in an ice-box from the DARC was flown from Dehradun to Mussoorie. 

Officials added that the results were more than promising. The drone took about 60 minutes to reach its destination in Mussoorie hills and return after delivering the package.

Earlier, drones have been utilised to carry blood samples of a patient from Dehradun to a village in Tehri Garhwal.

The ITDA, which has total 12 drones including Quadcopters and fixed-wing vehicles, is also planning to collaborate with private and individual drone users and developers to expand the project. 

The state government has already set up a task force at state, district and block level to implement and monitor the vaccination process once it starts. However, final decision to deliver Covid vaccine using drones is yet to be taken on state government levels.

Amit Negi, state health secretary said, “We are aware of the trials and decision regarding this will be taken in due course of time after assessing the feasibility and other factors.”

Uttarakhand has already been using drones to detect forest fires, poaching, policing, mapping properties to check tax evasion and also in disaster management.

The state government has planned to establish India’s first Drone Project Management Unit for research, development and to train officials and staff of various departments to operate and use drones in wildlife conservation, mining operations, and various other areas. The unit is being planned to be established at Sahastradhara Road in 24000 square meter area.

In December 2018, Uttarakhand became the first state in India to have a special force of drones to keep check on wildlife crimes. ‘Forest Drone Force’ with 25 drones focuses on preventing poaching and various other anti-wildlife and anti-environment activities, forest fires, illegal mining, patrolling high altitude areas of the state, illegal tree felling and many more. 

On February 19-20 this year, the second edition of “India Drone Festival- Dronathon @Dronagiri 2.0” was organised by the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA). 

Inaugurated by chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat with the theme ‘Anti-drone Technology’, the festival was organized to address various issues related to ‘Counter Drone’ technologies to promote the creation of intelligent solutions in the future. 

Officials of around 20 companies from across the country attended the event which focused on addressing various issues related to counter-drone technologies to promote the creation of intelligent solutions. 

A DARC Mapper Software was released during the inauguration ceremony which generates professional maps, elevation models, 3D models, and point clouds from aerial images.

Source:- newindianexpress.com

In a move that would help create ecosystem for drone operations in the country, Redbird Flight Training Academy, a training Institute, has in a first trained a batch of drone pilots.

“We will become the drone capital of the world and we all need to work together to make this happen effectively. There is a lot of demand on the defence and civilian side. The Svamitva project by the Survey of India itself includes 6.6 lakh villages to be mapped by 2024. This is a stiff target, but we must surprise the world. We are a nation of large numbers and the scope for adoption of drone technology is immense basis existing development and agriculture projects being executed,” said Amber Dubey, joint secretary, aviation ministry.

As the demand for pilots is going to increase the institute plans to scale up the drone pilot training programme to train over 1,000 drone pilots every month subject to regulatory clearances.

“We have seen great success and learning in the curriculum imparting process and are prepared to scale this to reach out to maximum potential talent. Not only is this an effective skill development opportunity but also a critical tool for rural development,” Abhilasha Singh, VP Training, Redbird Flight Training Academy said.

The training institute also said that they will offer free training over a hundred villages across India and locally appoint boys and girls to grow homegrown capability of drone surveillance supporting to the development across regions and aid the ongoing digital mapping initiative across rural India.

The certificate program takes 5-6 days to complete and includes classroom training, simulator and real flying experience at the Redbird Flight Training Academy, Baramati.

Source:-
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/india-to-become-the-drone-capital-of-the-world-aviation-ministry/articleshow/79081908.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

The Centre-run flight training institute Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) here on Saturday announced its expansion plan to begin drone pilot training courses, a first of its kind initiative by a government body. The announcement comes after a recent agreement between the academy and Indian operator Drone Destination.

“[Drones are] absolutely a new and emerging area with immeasurable potential and opportunities”, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) Secretary, Pradeep Singh Kharola, said at the 36th foundation day of IGRUA.

“The first thing is even drone operations require pilots and one of the first training center’s for drones is being established in IGRUA.”

He added: “The entire regulatory framework for drones has been put in place and very soon drones would be regulated, monitored, observed and controlled just as is being done for aircraft.”

According to Kharola, India needs to be able to effectively manage drones to be able to cope with their increasing usage. “The challenge is that we have to ensure that not only we become leaders in drone manufacturing but also in their management,” he said.

Kharola also hinted that IGRUA could enter the drone manufacturing market in the future. India’s government has increasingly been pushing for the uptake of drones in various industries including agriculture as well as in law enforcement and disaster management.

IGRUA Director Krishnendu Gupta said drone pilot training would begin shortly at the institute’s campus located at Fursatganj in Amethi.

“Under the collaborative initiative, IGRUA will provide its resources while the Drone Destination will chip in with its expertise in drones to train the aspirants,” Gupta told PTI.

He said the course duration would be around two-weeks and added that the institute will soon also begin a programme on English Language Proficiency (ELP).

The government wants at least 40% of new drone pilots to be women.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/centre-s-first-drone-pilot-training-programme-announced-at-igrua/story-g8MEZehYb51WLbKrLxN3SO.html