The union cabinet on June 16, 2021, approved the Deep Ocean Mission (DOM), announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22. The mission seeks to tap vast marine living and non-living resources, conduct research on climate variables, develop deep-sea technologies for sustainable use of ocean resources, and support the country’s Blue Economy initiatives including off-shore technology, marine fisheries, and coastal tourism.
Oceans cover 70 per cent of the globe, and are an integral part of our life. However, about 95 per cent of deep ocean remains unexplored. For India, ocean is a major economic factor supporting fisheries and aquaculture, tourism, livelihoods, and blue trade. India’s three sides are surrounded by the oceans and around 30 per cent of the country’s population live in coastal areas. Oceans provide us food, energy, minerals, medicines, act as modulator of weather and climate, and underpin life on Earth. Due to the vital role played by oceans in sustainability, the United Nations (UN) has declared the decade, 2021-2030 as the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
India has a unique maritime position with 7,517 km long coastline spanning nine coastal states and 1,382 islands. The Government of India’s Vision of New India by 2030 highlight the blue economy as one of the ten core dimensions of growth.
The Deep Ocean Mission will help India to explore and mine strategic polymetallic nodules like nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), and cobalt (Co) in 75,000 km of area in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB). This will bring India at par with a select group of nations, including China, the US, Germany, Japan, and Canada, in conducting the oceanographic research in the deep sea.
Objective of the Mission
Six components of the mission are as follows:
- Development of technologies for deep-sea mining and manned submersible: Under the mission, a manned submersible will be developed to carry three people to a depth of 6,000 metres in the ocean with a suite of scientific sensors and tools.
An Integrated Mining System will also be developed for mining polymetallic nodules from 6,000 metres in-depth in the central Indian ocean (mid-oceanic ridges). This will facilitate the commercial exploitation of these oceanic resources in the near future, as and when the commercial exploitation code is evolved by the International Seabed Authority. This component will also help the blue economy priority area of harnessing and exploring the deep-sea minerals and energy.
- Development of the ocean climate change advisory services: Under this component, a suite of observations and models will be developed to understand and provide the future projections of significant climate variables on seasonal to decadal time scales. It will support the blue economy priority area of coastal tourism.
- Technological innovations for exploration and the conservation of deep-sea biodiversity: According to government sources, the technologies that are required for deep-sea mining have strategic implications but they are not commercially viable. Therefore, the attempt will be made to indigenise technologies by collaborating with private industries and leading institutes. For this purpose, a research vessel for deep-sea exploration will be built in an Indian shipyard, which will also create employment opportunities in the area of marine fisheries and allied services.
- Deep ocean survey and exploration: This component is concerned with exploration and identification of potential sites of multi-metal hydrothermal sulphides mineralisation in the Indian Ocean mid-Oceanic ridges region.
- Off-shore energy and freshwater from the ocean: This proposal envisions studies and detailed engineering design for offshore ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)-powered desalination plant, which will support the blue economy priority area of off-shore energy development.
- Advanced marine station for ocean biology: This component aims to develop human capacity and enterprise in ocean biology and engineering in order to achieve practical application of research into industrial development through on-site business incubator facilities. It will also support the blue economy priority area of marine biology, blue trade, and blue manufacturing, etc. Moreover, design, development, and fabrication of specialised equipment, ships, and setting up of required infrastructure are expected to spur the growth of the Indian industry, especially the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and startups.
The government has allocated ₹4,077 crore to the mission for a period of five years. The mission will be implemented in a phased manner by the Ministry of Earth Sciences through multiple institutions such as Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Biotechnology, and others. The estimated cost for the first phase for three years (2021-2024) will be ₹2,823 crore.
© Spectrum Books Pvt Ltd.