New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the new 'drone rules' usher in a landmark moment for this sector in India.

The Prime Minister also said that the new drone rules will tremendously help startups and our youths working in this sector.

In a series of tweets, the Prime Minister said, "The new Drone Rules usher in a landmark moment for this sector in India. The rules are based on the premise of trust and self-certification. Approvals, compliance requirements and entry barriers have been significantly reduced."

"The new drone rules will tremendously help start-ups and our youth working in this sector. It will open up new possibilities for innovation and business. It will help leverage India's strengths in innovation, technology and engineering to make India a drone hub," the Prime Minister said.

The Centre has replaced the UAS Rules with the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021 which are built on a premise of trust, self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring.

In March 2021, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had published the UAS Rules, 2021. "They were perceived by academia, Startups, end-users and other stakeholders as being restrictive in nature as they involved considerable paperwork, required permissions for every drone flight and very few 'free to fly' green zones were available," MoCA said in a statement.

The 'Unmanned Aircraft Systems' (UAS), commonly known as drones, offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy like agriculture, mining, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transportation, geo-spatial mapping, defence, and law enforcement.