VidBodh AcademyThe art and science of civil services preparation
Student login

Science and Technology › IPR and science policy

हिन्दी — Read in Hindi

Ocean, polar and earth science missions

Deep sea exploration, seabed minerals and who may mine them, ocean observation, India's Arctic and Antarctic research, and seismology. Prelims has asked about India's Deep Ocean Mission and who licenses exploration of the international seabed.

Foundation notes: UNCLOS: the zones from the coast to the Area · Deep sea minerals

Deep Ocean Mission

Copy link to Deep Ocean Mission

Prelims and Mains

The Deep Ocean Mission, begun in 2021 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, develops the technology for exploring and using the deep sea through six verticals, shown in the figure.

  • It is reported as a mining programme, but mining is one vertical of six.
  • Ocean thermal energy conversion, power from the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep water, is another.
Deep Ocean Mission

  • 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
The six verticals of the Deep Ocean Mission, from PIB releases of August 2026

Life and metal on the seabed

  • The mission reads the Indian Ocean floor for life as much as for metal, and the two turn up in the same places.
  • Seamounts are underwater mountains that never reach the surface.
  • At mid ocean ridges, hydrothermal vents release mineral rich hot water, around which dense communities live.
  • The mission's species lists are the baseline against which any loss from mining will be measured.

Samudrayaan and Matsya6000

Samudrayaan is the mission's crewed deep sea programme, and Matsya6000 the submersible built for it by the National Institute of Ocean Technology.

  • Matsya6000 is a titanium sphere carrying three people to 6,000 metres, the depth at which India's nodule field lies.
  • It has 12 hours of endurance and 96 hours of emergency life support.
  • A crewed dive lets scientists see and sample what a remotely operated vehicle can only film.

What changed

  1. 12 Aug 2026New

    • Matsya6000 completed harbour trials, and the nodule field was surveyed.
    • Four hydrothermal vent fields were found on the Central and Southwest Indian Ridges, with India's first image of an active vent.

    PIB, 12 Aug 2026: Deep Ocean Mission: submersible, nodules and hydrothermal vents (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 5 Aug 2026: Deep Ocean Mission: submersible, nodules and hydrothermal vents (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2026: India's Deep Ocean Mission and Samudrayaan

India's deep sea mining programme

Copy link to India's deep sea mining programme

Prelims and Mains

India's deep sea mining programme explores the seabed for minerals under three International Seabed Authority contracts.

  1. Exploration contract

    Exclusive ISA rights to survey an area

  2. Technology trials

    Crawlers tested beyond 5,000 m under the Deep Ocean Mission

  3. Industry and policy

    Private participation and a White Paper on Deep Sea Mining

  4. Exploitation Code

    Commercial mining in international waters only after the ISA brings it out

From exploration contract to mining: the ISA ladder, from the PIB release of 8 September 2026

The contracts and the trials

  • One, held since 2002, is for polymetallic nodules over an exclusive area of 75,000 sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin.
  • Two are for polymetallic sulphides, on the Central and Southwest Indian Ridge and on the Carlsberg Ridge in the Arabian Sea, which made India the first country to hold two.
  • Exploration is survey and test mining, and NIOT's indigenous mining crawler has been trialled at 5,270 m.
  • Commercial mining waits on the Authority's Exploitation Code, which it has not adopted.

The case against

  • The damage does not stay where the machine is.
  • Removing nodules destroys slow growing habitats that may take very long to recover.
  • Sediment plumes and noise spread well beyond the mined site, which is why the mission's own species lists matter.

What changed

  1. 8 Sep 2026

    • At an industry outreach workshop the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the National Institute of Ocean Technology invited private firms into deep sea mining and announced a White Paper on Deep Sea Mining to set the terms.

    PIB, 8 Sep 2026: Ministry of Earth Sciences and NIOT Host Industry Outreach Workshop on Deep Sea Mining to Secure India's Critical Mineral Future (opens in a new tab)

Background reading: PIB, 12 Aug 2026: Deep Ocean Mission: submersible, nodules and hydrothermal vents (opens in a new tab)

Ocean observation and tsunami warning

Copy link to Ocean observation and tsunami warning

Prelims and Mains

The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services runs India's ocean observing network of buoys, current profilers, tide gauges and Argo floats.

  • Its tsunami warning system issues an advisory within ten minutes of an undersea earthquake.

What changed

  1. 30 Jul 2026BriefThe Centre runs wave rider buoys, current profilers and tide gauges along the coast, and Argo floats were deployed in the deep sea between 2014 and 2025. The tsunami warning system rests on seismic stations, deep ocean buoys and tide gauges, and issues an advisory within 10 minutes of an undersea earthquake capable of causing a tsunami. PIB, 30 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: OCEAN OBSERVATION NETWORK AND FORECASTING (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 29 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: EXPANSION OF OCEAN OBSERVATION NETWORK (opens in a new tab)

Seismic monitoring

Copy link to Seismic monitoring

Prelims and Mains

The National Seismological Network of 172 stations records India's earthquakes.

  • The Kangra and Chamba belt of Himachal Pradesh lies in the highest seismic hazard zone on the Bureau of Indian Standards map.
  • A seismic doublet is two quakes of similar magnitude from distinct but closely related ruptures seconds to hours apart, unlike an aftershock, which is driven by the main quake and usually a magnitude or more smaller.
  • A doublet prolongs strong shaking and hits buildings already weakened by the first shock.

What changed

  1. 25 Jun 2026BriefA magnitude 7.2 quake about 160 km west of Caracas was followed 39 seconds later by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock on 24 June, which the United States Geological Survey called a seismic doublet. Mains: The Bureau of Indian Standards shelved a revision that found Himalayan seismic hazard badly underestimated, nearly doubled design forces and added a sixth zone. The Indian Express, 25 Jun 2026: Tens of thousands feared dead in Venezuela: Why doublet earthquakes were so destructive (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 25 Jun 2026: Venezuela's deadly history of earthquakes — and how they affected its politics (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 27 Jun 2026: Tragic evening: On the earthquake in Venezuela (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

  • National report on deep-sea fishery resources · on Marine and coastal ecosystems

    The national report on deep sea fishery resources is the Ministry of Earth Sciences' account of the fish in India's deep water, below the reach of light.

  • The UN declaration on sea level rise and statehood · on Cryosphere, oceans and sea level

    The United Nations General Assembly's declaration on sea level rise affirms that a State remains a State even if the sea takes its land, and that its maritime boundaries stay where they were fixed.

Download a copy

Every article on this page, in full.