Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak (BVV)
President Droupadi Murmu has approved the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak (BVV), modernizing India’s aircraft regulation framework. It seeks to facilitate designing and manufacturing of aircraft in India. It also replaces 90-year old Aircraft Act. The Bill has received the President's assent.
About the Bill
- The BVV bill provide for regulation and control of the design, manufacture, maintenance, possession, use, operation, sale, export and import of aircraft and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
- The legislation seeks to remove redundancies and replace the Aircraft Act, 1934, which has been amended 21 times.
- It seeks to facilitate designing and manufacturing of aircraft in India.
- The Bill has received the President's assent. The both houses passed the bill, Lok Sabha on 9th August and Rajya Sabha on 5th December 2024.
Changes in the Bill
The most significant change in the Bill is that the Radio Telephone Operator Restricted certificate and licence testing process, which was hitherto conducted by the Department of Telecom (DoT) for aviation personnel, including aircraft maintenance engineers, flight despatchers and pilots, has been moved to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This will ensure a single-window clearance process as aviation personnel can now secure all their certificates from one authority. Personnel taking exams, including trainee pilots, have alleged that there was rampant corruption in the conduct of the RTR exam under the DoT, with candidates requiring to cough up several lakhs in bribes.
