You are reading it here first: 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. MediaNama had filed an RTI application to the civil aviation regulator. 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: Hillol Biswas, Director, Aircraft Engineering R.P. Kashyap, Deputy Director, Air Traffic Control Organisation K. Thulasiraman, Deputy Director, Aircraft Engineering Manish Gupta, Assistant Director, Aircraft Engineering Yogendra Kumar, Assistant Director, Airworthiness Ajay Pal Ogrey, Operations Officer Praveen Kumar Singh, Aeronautical Officer Manish (It isn’t clear which department in the DGCA this person belongs to) We have reached out to a few members in the Directorate for comment on what their immediate priorities will be, and will update the story if we hear from them. [caption id="attachment_126891" align="aligncenter" width="972"] Members of the Drones Directorate | Source: RTI filed by MediaNama[/caption] 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, an industry source had earlier told MediaNama. What the Directorate could look into: A dedicated draft legislation for drone use in the…
