In a public notice issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian government warned citizens of fake drone or remote pilot training organisations (RPTO) offering remote pilot training programs. In the notice, dated March 2, Arun Kumar of DGCA said that it was brought to their notice that many RPTOs, unrecognised by DGCA were claiming to be approved by the body and were allegedly luring candidates through misleading advertisements. "In view of the above, All such organisation/person are hereby warned that as per Rule 50 of Drone Rules 2021, appropriate penalty shall be levied by DGCA, if found involved in such fake activity." - DGCA notice. According to Rule 50 of Drone Rules 2021, the Indian government, if it has been proved that a person has failed to comply with Drone Rules 2021, may penalise the person of a sum not exceeding Rs 1 lakh. The Drone Rules 2021, which superseded the earlier Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Rules 2021, abolished various restrictive norms. Recently, the Indian government introduced an amendment that further simplified the new rules and said that certain types of drones will not need a license to legally fly, but instead will need certification from one of the 12 DGCA-recognised drone schools using the Digital Sky platform. Not just RPTO, other associations are claiming to be DGCA affiliated The DGCA said that apart from RPTOs, few NGOs, federations, trust, associations and so on were allegedly giving misleading advertisements on their websites. They were claiming to…
