India bans drone imports to help local manufacturers take off
- Reference: 1644557230
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/02/11/india_bans_drone_imports/
- Source link:
A revised [1]list [PDF] of banned imports includes drones "completely built up," "completely knocked down," and "semi knocked down."
The ban doesn't apply to drone components, nor to drones used for research, development, defence, and security purposes – provided the Directorate General of Foreign Trade approves the imports.
[2]
That leaves open the possibility that Indian drone companies could add value by creating original designs using imported components. Such imports could make it easier for domestic drone companies to produce competitive machines, and for the Ministry to realize its [3]vision of India as a manufacturing and operations drone hub by 2030.
[4]Geomagnetic storm takes out 40 of 49 brand new Starlink satellites
[5]You should read Section 8 of the Unix User's Manual
[6]Securing open-source code isn't going to be cheap
[7]Car radios crashed by station broadcasting images with no file extension
[8]Toshiba reveals 30TB disk drive to arrive from 2024
India sees drones as a big part of its future – in roles including delivery, helping farmers to manage their land or spray crops, or using aerial photography and monitoring tools for diverse applications. To capitalize on the impending boom in a cost-efficient way, and in line with India's Aatmanirbhar Bharat self-sufficiency drive, the Ministry is investing in the industry now.
Indian drone-makers are currently developing the nation's first heavy lift drones – machines capable of carrying up to 150kg of cargo up to 150km. Many of India's roads are infamously underdeveloped, so a cargo drone could slash delivery times, making e-commerce more mainstream and more accessible to rural areas.
[9]
Last August, the Ministry relaxed requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles – including reducing fees and dropping the need for a security clearance to have a drone licence. It then approved an incentive scheme for drones and components with an overall budget of ₨1.2 billion ($16.3M) over three years.
The nation has also built [10]free drone airspace maps and in 2021 published drone rules that are "based on a premise of trust, self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring." ®
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[1] https://content.dgft.gov.in/Website/dgftprod/7d5fd1eb-ad39-4c99-b760-014223657469/Eng-Notification%2054%20dated%209%20Feb%202022%20ITC(HS)%202022%20_with%20Annexures.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YgZB3ACww2hxA3Mmzwrf2gAAANM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1749154
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/09/starlink_satellites_burned_by_geomagnetic_storm/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/09/section_8_unix_user_manual/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/09/secure_open_source_software/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/10/mazda_radios_images/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/09/30tb_toshiba_disk_drive/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YgZB3ACww2hxA3Mmzwrf2gAAANM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1757850
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
obvious loophole
Just fly the drones in using a drone
"Indian drone-makers are currently developing the nation's first heavy lift drones – machines capable of carrying up to 150kg of cargo up to 150km. Many of India's roads are infamously underdeveloped, so a cargo drone could slash delivery times, making e-commerce more mainstream and more accessible to rural areas."
Improving roads might be more expensive and slower in the short term, but long term roads allow moving far higher loads over far longer distances which will be MUCH more beneficial. I REALLY don't see the use case for drones for cargo transport other than maybe for emergency transport of time sensitive items like medication in situations where there are no (good) roads available. They're pointlessly inefficient, can't carry much weight, are imho comparatively dangerous (It's a waiting game for the first "cargo drone killed x persons in crash") and use resources that could be used far more efficiently in other ways.
heavy lift drones are just as much of a boondoggle as "personal helicopters" and other vertical take-off personal vehicle designs were in the 50s and 60s.
So what you are saying is that people in remote regions should wait for the roads to be improved, and there's no case to use drones as an interim measure in a country of over 3¼ million km².
User name checks out.
You think drones carrying 150kg at a time are a solution for poor communities that are remote enough to not have roads?
I have a different opinion. Cargo drones are a non-starter. For any situation. So stop wasting money on them and build roads. Because those will actually help people.
Nationalism.
... never ends well.
All that happens is affected countries retaliate in tt-for-tat spats.