The Union ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) on June 7 announced the country’s first national air sports policy (NASP 2022).
Key Highlights
- The policy aims to make India a hub for air sports in the world by 2030.
- The NASP, in its present form, will cover air sports such as aerobatics, aeromodelling, model rocketry, amateur-built and experimental aircraft, ballooning, drones, gliding and powered gliding, hang-gliding and powered hang-gliding, parachuting (including skydiving, BASE jumping and wingsuit flying), paragliding and paramotoring (including powered parachute trikes), powered aircraft and rotorcraft.
- Under the new policy, the air sports in India will be under a four-tier governance structure with the Air Sports Federation of India ( ASFI) as the apex governing body.
- Then, there will be national associations for individual air sports or a set of air sports, followed by regional or state and union territory level units of the national air sports associations and then the fourth level is the district-level air sports associations.
- The policy also stated that a person, or an associated person, involved in an accident will inform the concerned air sports association in writing, along with a copy to the ASFI, no later than 48 hours after an incident.
- The policy also enables the adoption of international good practices in safety including air sports infrastructure, equipment, operations, training, and maintenance among others.
- It will also promote the design, development, and manufacturing of air sports equipment in India in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat policy of the government.
