How India's Massive Drone Market Is Serviced By Smuggled Chinese Drones

Flying Under The Radar

- SIDDHARTH PRABHAKAR @ Chennai

The Indian drone market is estimated to be worth $1 billion and is poised to grow massively in the next five years, with a projected value of $2.13 billion by 2027, at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 60%. However, beneath the surface of this booming industry lies a complex web of smuggled Chinese drones, flouting Indian laws and regulations.

Despite a ban on importing Chinese-made drones, they are widely available in grey markets across the country, thanks to organised gangs and semi-porous borders. These drones are smuggled from Southeast Asian countries and the United Arab Emirates by organised gangs and sold openly in grey markets across Indian cities.

A February 2022 notification of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry explicitly banned the import of drones. And the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the apex regulator, does not allow the registration of foreign drones. Though not specified upfront, this is due to concerns of misuse of the recorded data, as drone servers are abroad, and the fear that the presence of foreign components in these electronics may act as malware.

Buying and operating a Chinese drone is an illegal activity as per Indian law, but poor enforcement and loophole-filled regulation ensure that it flourishes unchecked. However, many Chinese drones brought into the country before 2021 have been registered with the DGCA as per rules. The presence of a massive number of unregistered drones in India is neither a secret, nor unknown to regulators.

The DGCA mandates that every drone should be registered on their website before use. Every registered drone has a Unique Identification Number (UIN), which has details of its make and owner. As on April 17, only 32,000 drones from India were registered on the DigitalSky website. But experts estimate that there might be at least five lakh drones in the country, indicating that 90% of them are unregistered, likely of Chinese make.