SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) | Ministry of Panchayati Raj | National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)
India has built a regulated network of 38,500+ registered drones and nearly 40,000 certified remote pilots as of February 2026. Central to this growth is the Digital Sky platform, a single-window digital governance mechanism that has simplified regulatory approvals from 72 down to just 4. Drone technology is now a primary pillar of flagship schemes like SVAMITVA, which has mapped 3.28 lakh villages (95% of the target) to resolve land disputes and improve credit access. Furthermore, the Namo Drone Didi initiative has distributed over 1,094 drones to women Self Help Groups (SHGs) to modernize agriculture. These advancements are supported by a ₹120 crore PLI scheme and a unified 5% GST rate on drones and training simulators, fostering a self-reliant "Drone-as-a-Service" model across India.
Key Pillars of India’s Drone Transformation
Agricultural Modernization: Deploying drones via the Namo Drone Didi scheme to shift from labor-intensive practices to precision agriculture.
Digital Land Records: Achieving nearly 95% completion of drone surveys in 3.28 lakh villages under the SVAMITVA scheme, leading to 2.76 crore property cards.
Infrastructure Surveillance: Mandating monthly drone-video recordings by NHAI for highway projects and utilizing UAVs for railway track maintenance and yard security.
Regulatory Liberalization: Simplifying drone rules to reduce approval requirements from 72 to just 4 and opening 90% of airspace as Green Zones.
Ecosystem Capacity Building: Establishing 244 approved training organizations (RPTOs) and running specialized programs like SwaYaan and the NIDAR innovation challenge.
What is the “Digital Sky” Platform? Digital Sky is India’s single-window online platform for the management of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). It serves as a comprehensive digital governance mechanism where drone operators can handle registration, remote pilot certification, and airspace map access. Under the platform’s regulatory framework, Indian airspace is categorized into Green, Yellow, and Red zones, with the liberalized rules allowing drones up to 500 kg to operate in Green Zones without prior flight permission. By migrating services like Type Certification and Unique Identification Number (UIN) issuance to this digital interface, the government has created a paperless and transparent environment for the maturation of the “Drone-as-a-Service” (DaaS) model.
Policy Relevance
The maturation of the drone ecosystem represents a transition from “Restricted Technology” to “Democratized Infrastructure,” where aerial data is becoming a basic input for federal governance and rural empowerment.
Strategic Impact:
Federal Asset Management: The NHAI’s mandate for monthly drone recordings creates a permanent, “Evidence-Ready” digital record for federal projects, reducing the legal friction in multi-state highway development.
Standardizing “Namo Drone Didi” Workflows: Establishing standardized training for women SHGs through 244 RPTOs acts as a “Standard Maker” move, ensuring that rural technological adoption meets global safety and “Safety by Design” benchmarks.
Operationalizing SVAMITVA for Credit: Translating 2.76 crore property cards into bankable assets creates the “Trust Architecture” needed to link the rural economy with the UPI One World and P2M digital payment ecosystems.
Bypassing Local Red Tape: By declaring 90% of airspace as Green Zones, the federal government has removed the “Implementation Friction” for local startups, allowing for rapid-response disaster management in high-risk zones like the Himalayas.
Implementation Fidelity via GST Reform: The reduction of GST to 5% for both drones and simulators directly lowers the capital expenditure for Tier-3 and Tier-4 technical institutes, deepening the value chain for indigenous drone manufacturing.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: What 'Techno-Legal Standards' should be established to ensure that 'NHAI' drone-video footage remains tamper-proof and admissible in domestic and international arbitral tribunals?
Follow the full news here: India’s Drone Ecosystem - February 2026