The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences has informed about the progress of O-SMART Scheme.

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India’s ambitious Deep Ocean Mission is an umbrella scheme under O-SMART initiative. Bottom of Form

O-SMART Scheme

• The services rendered under the O-SMART will provide economic benefits to a number of user communities in the coastal and ocean sectors, namely, fisheries, offshore industry, coastal states, Defence, Shipping, Ports etc.
• It seeks to address issues relating to SDG-14, which aims to conserve the use of oceans, marine resources for sustainable development.
• It also provides the necessary scientific and technological background required for the implementation of various aspects of Blue Economy.
• The State of Art Early Warning Systems established Scheme will help in effectively dealing with ocean disasters like Tsunami, storm surges.
• The technologies being developed will help in harnessing the vast ocean resources of both living and non-living resources from the seas around India.
• A fleet of research vessels viz., Technology Demonstration vessel SagarNidhi, Oceanographic Research Vessel SagarKanya, Fisheries and Oceanographic Research Vessel SagarSampada and Coastal Research Vessel SagarPurvi have been acquired to provide required research support.

Some of the modified objective

The objectives of O-SMART are:

• To generate and regularly update information on Marine Living Resources and their relationship with the physical environment in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),
• To periodically monitor levels of seawater pollutants for health assessment of coastal waters of India, to develop shoreline change maps for assessment of coastal erosion due to natural and anthropogenic activities,
• To develop a wide range of state-of-the-art ocean observation systems for the acquisition of real-time data from the seas around India,
• To generate and disseminate a suite of user-oriented ocean information, advisories, warnings, data and data products for the benefit of society,
• To develop high-resolution models for ocean forecast and reanalysis system,
• To develop algorithms for validation of satellite data for coastal research and to monitor changes in the coastal research,
• Acquisition of 2 Coastal Research Vessels (CRVs) as replacement of 2 old CRVs for coastal pollution monitoring, testing of various underwater components and technology demonstration,
• To carry out exploration of Polymetallic Nodules (MPN) from a water depth of 5500 m in the site of 75000 sq.km allotted to India by United Nations in Central Indian Ocean Basin, to carry out investigations of gas hydrates,
• Exploration of polymetallic sulphides near Rodrigues Triple junction in 10000 sq. km of the area allotted to India in International waters by International Seabed Authority/UN and,
• Submission of India’s claim over continental shelf extending beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone supported by scientific data, and Topographic survey of EEZ of India.

Also read:

Explained:  India’s Deep Ocean Mission

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