The government has directed drone manufacturers to install hardware that can disable a drone remotely in case it turns rogue.The idea was mooted in a meeting between aviation minister Jayant Sinha and more than a dozen drone manufacturers on the sidelines of the Global Aviation Summit, which was held in Mumbai on January 15 and 16.The suggestion followed a series of scares across the world involving drone sightings, including the one over London’s Gatwick airport in December that forced closure of the UK’s second-busiest airport and grounded hundreds of flights. Security agencies in India have also raised concerns over allowing operation of drones “The government wants drone manufacturers to add a chip at the hardware level to ensure that security agencies can disable the drone remotely in case it turns rogue,” an executive who attended the meeting said on condition of anonymity.The executive added that the government also wants drone makers to manufacture in India, as its expects the demand for drones to grow exponentially once the drone policy is fully implemented. There are about 40,000 drones in the country, according to government estimates, a number that can touch 1 million in five years.Industry analysts said the technology is available and can be retrofitted in the existing drones too.“Independent tracking hardware equipped with capabilities to interfere with the drones sensors including GPS can be retrofitted to the drones to activate manufacturer safety modes like ‘return to home’ or ‘autoland on spot’ or cut power in extreme cases to command the drones remotely by regulators,” said Sai Pattabiram, founder and CEO of SSAI and Zuppa, a company with experience in GPS tracking system.India, which announced a drone policy on August 27, is among a handful of nations in the world to have such a policy for regulation of drones. The policy had initially sought to allow operation of drones from December 1, 2018 but it could not be implemented fully due to concerns raised by security agencies. The policy will now be implemented once the process to register drones is complete.“Security agencies had reservations on the full implementation of operation of drones due to the security risk that it would create. Hence, the implementation has been staggered,” said a senior aviation ministry official.India has categorised drones into five categories based on weight — starting at less than 250 grams and going up to more than 150 kg — and their use. Barring the smallest nano category, others — micro, small, medium and large —need to be registered. Nano drones are mainly used as toys.