In her budget speech on February 1, 2021 Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced to launch a deep ocean mission with a budget outlay of more than Rs 4,000 crores, over five years.
- This mission will cover deep ocean survey exploration and projects for the conservation of deep sea bio-diversity.
- According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, a major thrust of the Mission will be to look for metals and minerals.
- The United Nation’s International seabed Authority has allotted to India a site of 75,000 sq. km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin for exploitation of Polymetallic Nodules which are scattered on the seabed.
- The rock like material contained several valuable metals and minerals such as Manganese, Nickel and Cobalt
