Science and Technology › IPR and science policy › Science missions
Deep Ocean Mission
The Deep Ocean Mission is the Ministry of Earth Sciences' ₹4,077 crore programme for working the deep sea, and it is read as a mining programme when mining is one of its six verticals. Its crewed submersible is through harbour trials, its surveys have found vent fields and species new to science, and a research vessel was launched in September. Mining itself waits on rules the International Seabed Authority has not written.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: India's Deep Ocean Mission and Samudrayaan
- Prelims 2021: who licenses seabed exploration in international waters
Six verticals, not one
Mining and submersible
- Deep sea mining technology and a crewed submersible
Ocean climate advisories
- Advisory services on ocean climate change
Deep sea biodiversity
- Exploring and conserving deep sea life
Ocean survey
- Surveying the deep ocean and its resources
Energy and freshwater
- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) from the sea
Marine biology station
- An advanced station for marine biology
- Begun in 2021 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the ₹4,077 crore mission develops technology for exploring and using deep ocean resources.
- Samudrayaan is its crewed deep sea programme, whose submersible Matsya6000 is designed to carry three people to 6,000 metres.
What the mission may not yet do
- India holds exploration contracts from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for polymetallic nodules and for polymetallic sulphides.
- The ISA's Mining Code has not been adopted, so exploration and test work are all that is permitted.
What has happened
9 Sep 2026
ORV Sagar Manthan, an ocean research vessel built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) for the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), was launched at Kolkata.
- Launch is not commissioning: the hull is floated out so construction can continue, and delivery is due in 2028.
- It replaces ORV Sagar Kanya and can work in extreme seas, including the Southern Ocean.
- It will survey Indian Ocean mid-oceanic ridges for hydrothermal sulphide deposits.
12 Aug 2026
August releases set out how far the mission's technology and its surveys have reached.
- Matsya6000 has completed harbour trials.
- The mining system has been trialled at 5,270 metres in the Central Indian Ocean Basin.
- Surveys of 31 seamounts recorded 201 deep sea species, 43 of them possibly new to science.
- Four hydrothermal vent fields were found on the Central and Southwest Indian Ridges, among them India's first image of an active vent.