Mumbai: Around four years after the Mumbai police intercepted a drone flying with a pizza parcel for delivery that led to a complete crack-down on the drone operations in India by private players, the new drone policy regarding its use has finally come into force starting December 1.

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The government had earlier cited privacy and security concerns while declaring a ban on its operations. The new policy- Drone Regulations 1.0 - allows basic operations like its use for infrastructure projects, marriage celebration, agriculture. However, its use for e-commerce delivery and air taxis will still have to wait, the officials said.

“It may happen in the drone regulation version-3.0 or may be even later” said a ministry source. “ We want to go step by step” added the source. However, with the coming of drone policy, more sectors will explore using drones now, claim experts. The significance of the usage of drones can be gauged from the fact that a research by BIS Research- a global market intelligence and advisory firm - has predicted that the Indian drone market will reach $885.7 million by 2021, and the global market size will touch $21.47 billion.

As a result, the Ministry of Civil Aviation on August 27 this year released the regulations for drone flying in India after much consultation with different stakeholders, including defence, aviation experts, academics, law enforcement agencies, hospitals, etc. As per an estimate, there are 40,000 drones operating in the country on the commercial side though the number of drones used by the armed forces is not available.

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