ICMR gets permission to study drones for delivering COVID-19 vaccine

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on April 22, 2021, allowed the Indian Council of Medical Research- ICMR to conduct a feasibility study on using drones for delivering the Coronavirus vaccine.

According to the press release by the Civil Aviation Ministry, the top medical body ICMR will be conducting the study in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology- IIT Kanpur.

To boost the nationwide vaccination drive, the Central Government had announced on April 19, 2021, that those above the age of 18 years will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccination from May 1.

Conditional exemption to test the drones:

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has informed that it has granted ‘conditional exemption’ to ICMR from the ‘Unmanned Aircraft System, Rules, 2021’ so that a feasibility study on using for delivering the Coronavirus Vaccine can be conducted.

The exemption by the Ministry will be valid for a period of one year or until further orders.

Conditional permissions granted to test drones for other purposes:

• Conditional permission has also been granted by the Ministry to Nagar Nigam (City Municipalities) of four cities- Haldwani, Dehradun, Rudrapur, Haridwar- to use drones in order to create an electronic tax register and property database.

• Permission has also been given to West Central Railway based in Katni and Kota to use the drones for mapping ‘train accident site’ and also for ‘maintaining the security and safety of the railway assets’.

• On April 8, 2021, Vedanta Ltd was given conditional permission to use drones for asset mapping and inspection.

COVID-19 in India:

As the government permits all adults above 18 to get vaccinated from May 1, 2021, the online registration for the vaccination against Coronavirus will start on the Aarogya Setu App and CoWIN Platform from April 28, 2021.

The need for vaccination has become much more significant, as India sees a sudden increase in the infected cases. The country has registered over 3.14 lakh new COVID-19 cases on April 22, 2021. It is the highest- ever single-day count that is recorded in any country.