Drone push stalls as registrations fail to take off

Bhopal: Amid the Centre's push for drone expansion and linking it to several welfarist pursuits, majorly involving rural women, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are lagging others states on this score, with just 480 and 161 registered drones respectively as of January 31, 2026. The figures highlight a sharp regional gap even after central reforms, aimed at accelerating the adoption of drones and despite Madhya Pradesh projecting itself as an emerging ‘drone hub'.While India's overall drone ecosystem is growing, the modest registration numbers in central India suggest limited uptake on the ground in MP. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on February 12, in response to a question by Opposition MP Sajda Ahmed, Union minister of state for civil aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, pointed to the Drone Rules, 2021—amended in 2023 and 2024—as a major enabler. The changes have classified about 90% of Indian airspace as ‘green zones', allowing permission-free drone operations in most areas, he stated.The Centre has also simplified remote pilot certification by removing the passport requirement and introduced a 2022 certification scheme for unmanned aerial devices, aimed at expanding use in agriculture, land surveying, and disaster response, particularly in rural and remote regions. Despite these measures, drone registrations in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh remain low. Madhya Pradesh ranks a lowly 14th nationally with 480 registered drones, far behind Maharashtra's 8,210. It is also outpaced by comparatively smaller states such as Haryana with 2,179 and Andhra Pradesh with 1,876. Chhattisgarh's 161 registrations places it even further behind, a concern given the state's operational needs across dense forests, mining areas, and remote tribal regions where drones could support surveillance, medical deliveries and flood response. The slow pace of registrations in Madhya Pradesh is bound to raise eyebrows, as the state government has already announced a focussed initiative for drone expansion titled "MP Drone Promotion and Utilization Policy-2025". The policy promises incentives including capital subsidies of up to 40% for manufacturers, capped at Rs 30 crore, and research and development grants up to Rs 2 crore, outlining an ambitious objective to make the state a drone manufacturing and innovation hub. With extensive farmland, mining belts, and infrastructure corridors, there is plenty of potential for drone use, but current registration levels indicate that policy ambition has not yet translated into widespread adoption.