Emerging technology like civilian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has the potential to exert an impact on agriculture production and crop damages assessment. Securing sustainability in agriculture requires accountability and responsibility of the actors engaged in the deployment of the civilian UAV due to associated deployment risks and unintended consequences. UAV technology has the potential to replace remote sensing technologies like satellite imageries and piloted aircraft used in the crop insurance business. The governance of deployment of UAV technology in India is a complex challenge when a well-developed regulatory system is not in place and diverse actors involved in the deployment and operation of civilian UAV for agricultural applications. Therefore, two main questions, how UAV innovations can lead to sustainability in Indian agriculture and how are the issues of governance of civil UAV innovations in crop insurance applications addressed, are dealt with. The responsible innovation approach is adopted as a theoretical framework. The exploratory and qualitative study used in-depth interviews, and the interviewees were selected through snowball sampling technique. The results suggest that in the governance of emerging technologies like UAV certain values such as trust, transparency, safety, autonomy, and environmental friendliness assumed high significance. Findings also suggest that UAV has the risk-taking ability in adverse weather condition. The UAV technology also creates values (social, economic and environmental) for deployment in the crop insurance business in India.

No abstract

No abstract

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to describe the evolving regulatory structures of the civilian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in India and Japan, not yet fully developed to regulate the deployment of the UAV. India and Japan are at the forefront to overhaul the respective regulatory framework to address issues of accountability, responsibility and risks associated with the deployment of UAV technologies. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews are conducted both in Japan and India to gather primary data based on the snowball sampling method. The paper addresses questions such as what is the current scenario of civilian UAV deployment in India and Japan. What are the regulation structures for Civil UAV deployment and operation and how they differ in India and Japan? What are the key regulatory challenges for Civil UAV deployment in India? How regulation structure enables or inhibits the users and operators of Civil UAVs in India? What are mutual learnings concerning UAV regulations? Findings Findings reveal that the Indian regulations address issues of responsibility by imparting values of privacy, safety, autonomy and security; Japanese regulation prefers values of trust, responsibility, safety and ownership with more freedom to experiment. Originality/value The study on civilian UAV regulatory framework is a new and innovative work embedded by the dimensions of responsibility and accountability from a responsible innovation perspective. The work is a new contribution to innovation literature looked at from regulatory structures. Field visits to both Japan and India enrich the study to a new elevation.

No abstract