DGCA Grants Type Certificate to Chennai Firm KICL's KOAIR-10L Drone
Chennai / New Delhi, 9 October 2026: India's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has granted a Type Certificate to Chennai-based Kothari Industrial Corporation Limited (KICL) for its KOAIR-10L drone.
What is a drone Type Certificate?
Under India's Drone Rules, 2021, a Type Certificate confirms that a drone model meets the required safety and technical standards. Drones without one generally cannot be operated in India, except for certain categories such as nano drones and research uses. Certification is handled with technical support from the Quality Council of India and authorised testing bodies.
Once a model is certified:
- It can be sold and registered on the government's Digital Sky platform
- Operators can fly it for approved purposes with a remote pilot certificate
About the KOAIR-10L
The model name suggests a drone in the 10-litre payload class, the size typically used for agricultural spraying of pesticides and nutrients. Detailed specifications were not included in the reports available to Wipidia.
India's drone push
The government has been promoting drones through:
- Liberalised Drone Rules (2021) that simplified approvals
- A ban on importing foreign drones (2022), with some exceptions, to encourage domestic manufacturing
- The PLI scheme for drones and drone components
- Drone Didi (Namo Drone Didi), which provides drones to women's self-help groups for agricultural services
Why it matters
Agricultural drones can:
- Spray crops faster and with less chemical use than manual spraying
- Reduce farmers' exposure to pesticides
- Create rural jobs for drone pilots and service providers
Each new Indian-made certified drone adds to the domestic supply chain and competition, which can lower prices for farmers.