In just 10 years, commercial drones have become indispensable tools across many industries and governments, creating well-paying jobs and new lines of business around the world. This trend is unfolding right now in Nepal, where a variety of drones are being used to support the devastating Bhotekoshi flood.

The global drone industry is expected to exceed $150 billion by the end of the decade. Nepal’s digital and engineering talent and entrepreneurial spirit make it well suited to become part of this expanding market. Nepal is not new to this technology. Following the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, drones were used for damage assessment, heritage documentation, landslide mapping and reconstruction planning. The drones today are exponentially more advanced than they were in 2015.

So, the question remains: Can Nepal create a strategic framework and mindset to provide drone-based solutions for many use cases while creating economic opportunities for its citizens?

Over the past five years, I have trained and worked alongside Nepali drone pilots and entrepreneurs. Many began with backgrounds in surveying, robotics, engineering and geographic information systems. Today they have built businesses in aerial mapping, infrastructure inspection, disaster response, transmission line installation, wildlife management, agriculture and professional training. Despite Nepal’s challenging business environment, these companies continue to grow because they are solving real problems, including recent trash and cargo hauling in the Everest region, drone-based tree seed dispersal, large-scale digital mapping, and thermal imagery-based counting of wildlife in National Parks. We see many private companies and superb pilots and drone technologists coming together right now to assist in rescue and support operations from the flooding disaster.

For the drone industry, the greatest obstacle is the absence of an effective institutional framework that allows the public and private drone industry to grow. Drone regulations are part of that framework, but so are professional licensing, certification pathways, technical standards, training organisations, procurement policies and a coordinated national strategy.

Like many countries, Nepal initially approached drones cautiously. That caution was appropriate because drones share airspace with traditional aviation. Even a small drone can pose substantial risk to a passenger airliner. In fact, while there were highly experienced drone pilots responding to the flood rescue operations, others were clearly less experienced because there were incidents where they flew too close to rescue helicopters.

Once disaster operations end, however, drone operators still face lengthy approval processes for routine operations. And even more important—although Nepal’s regulations contain remote pilot licensing, the licensing system has never been fully operationalised. There is still no practical pathway for prospective drone pilots to obtain a government-recognised professional license demonstrating their competence. This also prevents the government from having the necessary knowledge to regulate drone pilots. And this is what was happening during the disaster response—well-qualified individuals with risk-based training were flying, but so were pilots with good intentions and unknown qualifications. The “I’m helping, so I will fly” introduces unacceptable risk.

Many countries, including the United States and India, focus on licensing qualified pilots, which allows routine operations in low-risk airspace under clear operating rules with consequences for violations. Thus, rather than treating every flight as an exception, they train pilots thoroughly and enforce strict penalties for unsafe operations. This is one approach where risks are managed while reducing bureaucracy. But during a disaster response, authorities can impose temporary flight restrictions, under which pilots must be approved through the incident command and coordination structure, and only authorised flights are permitted. All licensed drone pilots know that flying in restricted airspace is not allowed and the consequences for violations are severe.

Nepal can encourage innovation by establishing a practical pathway for locally designed and assembled drones. Talented Nepali engineers are already capable of building specialised aircraft for agriculture, mapping, infrastructure inspection, delivery and other applications. Yet without an appropriate certification or type-approval pathway and reduced import taxes on components, domestic manufacturers face unnecessary barriers to bringing their products to market both within Nepal and eventually internationally.

In the United States, entrepreneurs can design and manufacture most commercial drones weighing less than 25 kg without first obtaining airworthiness certification for routine operations. An agricultural drone is a good example: It typically operates at very low altitudes, away from people and traditional aviation. A similar approach for lower-risk drones would encourage local manufacturing while allowing regulators to focus certification resources where risks are greatest. Custom drones, built for Nepal’s unique terrain, can reduce paying double or triple the cost to import drones.

Nepal will, therefore, benefit from a coordinated national strategy that aligns civil, military and law enforcement regulation, pilot training, procurement, governance, drone use cases and long-term workforce development.

None of these reforms requires Nepal to invent a new model or spend years in workshops and committees. Countries around the world have already demonstrated that practical risk-based regulation can encourage innovation without compromising aviation safety. Nepal can learn from those successes and customise it to suit its needs.

While Nepal cannot compete with its neighbours on size or scale, it can certainly compete by being smarter, faster, more innovative and more flexible. We should study the lessons learned from this disaster, what surrounding countries are doing, learn from their successes, and then do it better, turning Nepal’s size and agility into a competitive advantage.

The technology has arrived. The talent already exists. The use case has once again presented itself in a tragic way. What remains is the willingness to revisit and build the national framework for success. Otherwise, Nepal may once again find itself in the predicament Bruce Springsteen described in one of his songs: “you spend your life waiting for a moment that just don't come.” This opportunity has already arrived. The time to seize it is now.