Stakeholders affected by these new regulations have come to perceive it as a double-edged sword that cuts red tape for drone manufacturing in India but doesn't include any safeguards for collected data. Although India's new draft for the Drone Rules 2021, which will supersede the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Rules abolishes various norms in a bid to promote the drone industry, many legal experts pointed out that the proposed rules do not address privacy concerns like the outgoing UAS Rules, 2o21 did. Why this matters: It is necessary to not just summarise the policy but also gauge whether it addresses some key issues. For instance, the Draft Rules, 2021 does not even mention the word 'privacy'. This is concerning, especially since in the UAS Rules 2021, there was a specific obligation on authorised unmanned aircraft system operators to ensure the privacy of a person. Coupled with the fact that the proposed rules allow State governments and the Union government access to drone data at all times, it is necessary to question how the data is going to be used, experts pointed out. A few weeks ago drones were suspected to have been used in an attack on an Indian Air Force base in Jammu Airport making it the first instance of a UAV attack on the country’s territory. After that, the Prime Minister along with officials from several key ministries such as the Ministry of Civil Aviation went into a huddle to discuss security measures as well as undertake a review…
