Ecotine is a protein molecule that naturally occurs in bacteria that are extremely or moderately halophilic or salt-solving. They serve as a protective substance in bacterial cells. They help protect the microorganisms from extreme environmental conditions like high salinity, pressure, heat or aridity stress, and UV-radiation.

A team of scientists from NIOT, Port Blair, identified a halophilic bacteria, Bacillus clausii NIOT-DSB04 while analysing sediment samples collected from deep sea (at a depth of 1,840 metres) near Barren Island in the Andaman and Nicobar region during a cruise conducted by the Ministry’s Ocean Research Vessel `SagarManjusha’. They found it had ecotine molecules. They further developed a recombinant DNA technology method to optimise its production.

Ectoine has applications in dermo-pharmacy and the medical field.In the dermopharmacyindustry, ectoine and its derivatives are used as a major ingredient in moisturizers, UV protection creams, and as a freeze-stabilizing agent for enzymes. It accelerates the production of heat shock proteins by the skin and protects the skin cells from environmental effects such as dryness and UV radiation. Ectoine is mainly used in sun protection, moisture protection, and anti-aging creams.

In the medical field, it helps stabilize Langerhans’ cells of the skin, by preventing the entry of harmful microorganisms and allergens. It intensively assists the moisture retention of the skin by protecting the hydrolipid system. Further, it encourages the regeneration processes of the skin, maintains the vitality of the skin cells, supports the skin’s immune system, and protects the cell structures of the human skin and their genetic material.

The study team was led by Dr. L. Anburajan and Dr. B. Meena and included Dr. N. V. Vinithkumar, Dr. R. Kirubagaran and Dr. G. Dharani. They published a report on their work in Elsevier’s Microbial Pathogenesis journal.

The researchers noted, “So far, Ecotine has been imported. Now, with the development of our technology and its transfer for commercial production, it would be available to the domestic industry with greater ease”.

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keywords:National Institute of Ocean Technology, NIOT, Cosmos Biotech LLP, Ecotine, skin care, sun protection, protein, bacteria, halophilic, salinity, pressure, heat, aridity, UV-radiation, deep sea, Barren Island, Andaman and Nicobar, recombinant DNA technology.(India Science Wire)

Search for renewable energy resources with reduced carbon emissions is one of the most urgent challenges due to the increasing threat of global warming and the energy crisis. Among other things, mere vibrations are being harnessed to produce electricity. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) are new energy devices that generate electricity from vibrations.

They work on the principle of the creation of electrostatic charges via instantaneous physical contact of two dissimilar materials followed by generation of potential difference when a mismatch is introduced between the two contacted surfaces through a mechanical force. This mechanism drives the electrons to move back and forth between the conducting films coated on the back of the tribo-layers.

The methods that are presently employed to design the nanogenerators use expensive fabrication methods like photolithography or reactive ion etching, and additional processes like electrode preparation.

In the new study, researchers have designed one using thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) and Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as tribo layers. The easy availability of the active material and the simplicity of the fabrication process make it cost-effective over currently available fabrication techniques. The resulting device has also been found to be highly efficient, robust, and gives reproducible output over long hours of operation.

The study showed that the device could light up eleven LEDs by gentle hand tapping and could be a potential candidate for use in optoelectronics, self-powered devices, and other biomedical applications.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, a Bengaluru-based autonomous institute of Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology; Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen China. The team consisted of Dr. Shankar Rao, S.R.Srither, N.R.Dhineshbabu, S.Krishna Prasad, Oscar Dahlsten and Suryasarathi Bose. They have published a report on their work in ‘Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology’.

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Keywords: cost-effective, bio-compatible, optoelectronics, self-powered devices, biomedical applications, renewable energy, global warming, triboelectric nanogenerators, electrostatic charge, electron, photolithography, reactive ion etching, thermoplastic polyurethanes, Polyethylene terephthalate, Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, Indian Institute of Science.

It has achieved several nanosciences and technology-based breakthroughs like efficient low-cost electro-catalysts for rechargeable metal-air batteries from fish gills, visible light-assisted sensing of nicotine from cigarette smoke by using metal-organic nanotube Mobile 2D electron gas at oxide interfaces for electronic devices, says the statement issued by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The institute imparts advanced training courses and laboratory techniques of nanotechnology at the highest level, encouraging innovative and challenging technology/product based scientific projects,  boosting translational research (from laboratory to industry) and foster interactions with industry,  sensitizing the public and media about the advantages and safeguards in Nano Science and Technology.

INST, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, was established under the umbrella of NANO MISSION, initiated by DST to emphasize nano research in India. It started its activities as the first Indian nano-research institute in the country on 3rd January 2013 and shifted to its new campus in 2020.

The institute brings together biologists, chemists, physicists, and materials scientists under the same umbrella to pursue their interests in nanoscience and technology. INST has created state-of-art facilities in a short span of seven years to support multifaceted research activities in varied fields like Energy, Environment, Health Care, Agriculture, and Quantum Materials.

With the vision to emerge as a globally competitive India’s foremost research institution in Nano Science & Technology and contribute to society through applications of nanoscience & nanotechnology, INST has emphasized cutting-edge research in nanoscience and nanotechnology with an interdisciplinary flavour to meet global and local challenges.

To name some of its research achievements, the institute has about 180 research publications in international journals per year with an average impact factor of 4.2, and its overall rank (as per nature index) is 32. Further, two scientists from INST were ranked among the top 2% of scientists globally, and some scientists have become fellows of international organisations and editors of international journals and won prestigious awards.

INST has contributed significantly in promoting science and inculcating the practice to develop technology in India amongst the young generation of the nation through its unparalleled outreach program. The faculty of INST has directly interacted with more than 15,000 students in about 300 schools across the country and spread awareness about taking science as a career perspective. Through roadshows, the institute has demonstrated the importance of science in day-to-day life to more than 50,000 students and the general public.

It has reached out to more than 1000 students from marginalized sections of the society from 24 schools/colleges across the country towards scientific aptitude training.

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Keywords: Nanoscience for the Nation, Institute of Nano Science and Technology, INST, nanoscience, technology, electro-catalysts, metal-air battery, DST

A more ductile variety of cast iron, called spheroidal graphite iron, is used for making automotive parts.  The ductility, hardness and quality of the iron are determined by how fast the iron cools in the moulds. In a recent study, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) proposed an improved model for the cooling of molten spheroidal graphite iron that can optimise the cooling process in iron manufacturing industries for better quality cast iron. The study, published in Metallurgical and Materials transactions B, was partially funded by John Deere India Pvt. Ltd.

Spheroidal cast iron is made by extracting pure molten iron from iron ore, adding carbon, silicon and other elements to it and letting it cool in moulds of desired shapes. A small amount of carbon is dissolved in it and the rest is in the form of micrometre-sized graphite nodules. There is a problem, though—in moulds of complicated shapes, the molten iron doesn’t cool uniformly, causing non-uniform size and distribution of graphite nodules. “Non-uniformly distributed graphite nodules can make the component weaker, and the part may break during operation. Usually, smaller sized nodules, distributed uniformly, lead to better mechanical properties, such as higher ductility and strength,” says Prof ShyamprasadKaragadde of IIT Bombay, an author of the study.

Iron manufacturers can control the size and distribution of graphite nodules by tweaking various production parameters such as the surface area and depth of moulds, the temperature at which molten iron is poured into it, and the cooling rate. However, optimising these parameters requires the foresight that computer simulation models can offer. In the current study, researchers built an improved model to simulate the cooling process of molten iron and relate it with the properties of graphite nodules.

In the simulations, the researchers used a macro-model to calculate the temperature of the molten spheroidal graphite iron at short time intervals, as it cooled. They tracked the growth of several graphite nodules at different temperatures using a micro-model. Broadly, the micro-model emulated three different stages of cooling- graphite nodules surrounded by liquid iron, the nodules enclosed by ‘shells’ of iron, and wholly solidified iron. During the initial stage, the graphite nodules grow the fastest. Still, in previous models, researchers had not considered this stage as it is short-lived. “Introducing our mathematical model for the initial stage led to better prediction of the size and distribution of graphite,” points out Prof Karagadde.

The size of components manufactured in industries is usually a few tens of centimetres, while the graphite nodules are roughly a million times smaller and micrometre-sized. It is difficult to track the growth of each graphite nodule. “So instead, our macro-micro models predict the average size and number of graphite nodules in smaller regions (say about a few millimetres long) obtained by dividing the entire component into many smaller volumes,” comments Prof Karagadde.

Since the macro-micro model gives average predictions, it is not very accurate. To improve the predictions, the researchers further studied a single, isolated graphite nodule. A graphite nodule grows mainly through the diffusion of carbon from liquid iron into the nodule. After the molten iron completely solidifies, the nodule grows some more as insoluble carbon from surrounding iron adds to it. The researchers simulated this growth of a single graphite nodule using a method called ‘deforming grids’- they studied diffusion in small volumes of liquid iron called grids. “The deforming grids method, which is very accurate for a single graphite nodule, gave us a correction factor for the macro-micro model. We call this a multiscale approach as we used information from two models of two different scales,” says Prof Karagadde.

To validate their simulations, the researchers set up an experiment. They made spheroidal graphite iron blocks in moulds of different depths and rates of cooling. Deeper moulds had smaller surface areas for the same mass of iron, and cooled the slowest. They measured the temperatures of the cooling iron and studied the properties of graphite nodules, and compared them with predictions from their simulations.

The initial temperatures that their simulation calculated matched the observations, but the temperatures calculated post the second stage of cooling dropped about 10-15 minutes earlier than what was observed in moulds that cooled slowly.  According to the researchers, these deviations occurred because it is challenging to model the heat loss from moulds. “Moulds made from sands like silica sand contain some moisture that evaporates when hot liquid iron is poured. These fumes and small cracks in the sand disturb the flow of heat and are difficult to model,” explains Prof Karagadde. “However, these deviations may not lead to a significant change in the final predictions of the graphite nodules,” he adds.

The researchers analysed samples from their iron blocks for the final size and distribution of the cooled graphite nodules. Their observations and data from previous works exactly matched with their final simulation results, although their transient predictions of size during the cooling deviated by about a quarter of its actual volume. Unlike transient predictions, final predictions could be corrected using deforming grids method and were more accurate. In general, they saw that when molten iron cools slowly- like in the deeper moulds – the graphite nodules are smaller and more uniformly distributed.

This study modelled all the three stages of cooling of molten iron and introduced a new multiscale approach, giving better predictions about graphite nodules. “Our simulation models can help iron-manufacturers avoid significant material wastage and save time. We are now looking to improve the predictions in other varieties of cast iron that have a different chemical composition,” Prof Karagadde signs off.

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Keywords: Molten iron, Iron Ore, Iron properties, Cast iron, Automobile parts, IIT Bombay, Metallurgical, John Deere

In a recent study, the researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) have used a new catalyst for extracting hydrogen from water. Researchers have demonstrated how a magnetised catalyst can speed up hydrogen productionwhile bringing down the energy cost.They showed that their chosen catalyst had increased the speed of producing hydrogen and reduced the energy required to do so, compared to previous studies.

To extract hydrogen from water, researchers insert two electrodes across the water and pass current, which can separate the hydrogen from water, a process called electrolysis of water. Earlier studies have shown that metals like Platinum, Rhodium, and Iridium speed up electrolysis. “Although these metals work well, industrial systems don’t prefer them because they are expensive,” says Prof Chandramouli Subramaniam of IIT Bombay and an author of the study. The study has used a compound consisting of cobalt and oxygen to achieve the same goal at a much lower cost. While earlier researchers focused on developing new catalysts for the electrolysis of water, the authors of the present study concentrated on an alternative approach.

To achieve the increased energy efficiency, the researchers turned to less costly metal cobalt,already known for speeding up electrolysis. They decorated carbon nanoflorets,nanocarbon structures arranged like a marigold flower with cobalt oxide particles and placed these nanoflorets in the water. An electric field applied through the cobalt oxide to water molecules results in the electrolysis of water. Although cobalt oxide is a well-known electrochemical catalyst, it requires a high amount of energy and produces hydrogen at a low speed.

To increase the speed of electrolysis, the researchers did not rely on the electric field alone. Magnetic fields, which are related to electric fields, can play a crucial role in these reactions. The researchers showed that if they introduced a small fridge magnet near their setup, the reaction speed increased about three times. Even after removing the external magnet, the reaction still took place about three times faster than in the absence of the magnetic field. “This is because the catalyst we have designed can sustain the magnetisation for prolonged periods, the key being the development of a synergistic carbon-metal oxide interface,” explains JayeetaSaha, the author of the study. “A one-time exposure of the magnetic field is enough to achieve the high speed of hydrogen production for over 45 minutes,” she adds.

It is easy to integrate accessible house-magnets into the existing designs at a low cost. “We can directly adopt the modified setup in existing electrolysers without any change in design or mode of operation of the electrolysers,” says Ranadeb Ball, another author of the study.

“The intermittent use of an external magnetic field provides a new direction for achieving energy-efficient hydrogen generation. Other catalysts can also be explored for this purpose,” says Prof. Subramaniam.

Once the hydrogen is produced in large amounts, it can be packed off in cylinders and used as a fuel. If their efforts are successful, we might be looking at an environmentally friendly fuel, hydrogen, replacing petroleum, diesel, and compressed natural gas (CNG) in the future.

The study was supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),and the Industrial Research and Consultancy Center, IIT Bombay. It was published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

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Keywords: Hydrogen,Environment-friendly, Fuel, Oxygen, Gasoline, Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Bombay, Catalyst, Energy,SERB, DST,CSIR,ACS Journal

Lithium-ion batteries are the most commonly used power source for electric vehicles. However, its penetration to the daily usage against gasoline-based vehicles require drastic improvement in the lifetime and cost as well as mileage per charge. The active components of lithium-ion batteries are cathode, anode, and electrolyte. While commercial graphite is used as anode, lithium metal oxides or lithium metal phosphates are used as a cathode in Li ion battery. The electrolyte is a lithium salt dissolved in organic solvents.  The capacity of the lithium-ion battery determines the mileage of the electric vehicle. Before the capacity reduces to 80%, the number of charging cycles determines the life of the battery.

Carbon being inert to most chemicals and stable under the operating window is the best choice of coating material to improve the cyclic stability of the active materials. Carbon coating on the active materials can double the lifetime of the lithium-ion cells.  However, coating carbon on lithium metal oxide is very challenging, because of the difficulty involved in coating carbon during the synthesis of lithium metal oxide material in a single step.

To address this issue, researchers at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, have developed a technique to coat carbon in situ on lithium transition metal oxides in single step while synthesizing the oxide itself. Generally, carbon is coated on oxide materials using a second step, which is not uniform and is expensive as well. In ARCI method, a carbon precursor is trapped in between the transition metal hydroxide layers to minimize the reaction with oxygen even when heat-treated in the air during solid-state synthesis. Uniform carbon coating on the lithium transition metal oxides –LiNi0.33Mn0.33Co0.33O2 (NMC111) was achieved through this technique.

The electrochemical performance of the lithium-ion cells constructed using carbon-coated NMC111 is at par with that of the commercial lithium-layered oxide cathodes. Superior cyclic stability of the carbon coated product with capacity retention of more than 80% after 1000 cycles of charging/discharging is demonstrated with an optimum carbon thickness matching commercial samples. The researchers at ARCI expect the electrochemical performance to improve further once the lab-scale batch process is replaced by the continuous process to enable the process to be commercially viable.

The customized demand driven convergent water solution through FO will supply two litres of good quality drinking water per person per day for 10,000 people in the village, successfully overcoming a major drinking water shortage in the village. The FO system facilitates high recovery, low energy consumption, potential for resource recovery, especially in solutions of high osmotic pressure, less fouling of the membrane because of low pressure operation, easier and more effective cleaning of the membrane, longer membrane life and lower operating costs.

Tamil Nadu IIT Madras in collaboration with Empereal – KGDS Renewable Energy have successfully established and demonstrated this system to address prevalent and emerging water challenges in Mission Mode in the village.

Ramanathapuram District, situated in the South-East corner of Tamil Nadu, is severely affected by scarcity of potable water due to salinity, brackishness and also poor sources of ground water. The district of 423000 hectares has a long coastal line measuring about 265 kilometres accounting for nearly 1/4th of the total length of the coastal line of the state.

The Water Technology Initiative, Department of Science & Technology (DST) has supported this field based effort in the district through the consortium members led by Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), KGiSL Institute of Technology (KITE), Empereal– KGDS Renewable Energy (P) and ICT Mumbai.

LFR based Solar Thermal System     Solar hot water system installed at Narippaiyur Village, Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu

The sea water FO technology operates at near 2 bar pressure unlike sea water RO that operates at 50 bar pressure. It is versatile, has high energy efficiency and low operation and maintenance costs compared to other technologies.

The produced water will be supplied to the local people with the support of villagers and panchayat. This initiative of DST can pave way for scaling up the emerging technology in various coastal rural areas of the country to address drinking water shortage.

Scientists have long attempted to use the physics of scattering and computer algorithms to process the resulting data and improve the quality of images. Whereas the improvements are not stark in some cases, computer algorithms require processing large volumes of data, involving ample storage and significant processing time.

Research by a team has offered a solution for improving the image quality without heavy computations. The team from the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology; Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad; Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar; and Université Rennes and Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, France, modulated the light source and demodulated them at the observer’s end to achieve sharper images. The research was published in the journal ‘OSA Continuum’.

The researchers have demonstrated the technique by conducting extensive experiments on foggy winter mornings at Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. They chose ten red LED lights as the source of light. Then, they modulated this source of light by varying the current flowing through the LEDs at a rate of about 15 cycles per second.

The researchers kept a camera at a distance of 150 metres from the LEDs. The camera captured the image and transmitted it to a desktop computer. Then, computer algorithms used the knowledge of the modulation frequency to extract the characteristics of the source. This process is called ‘demodulation’. The demodulation of the image had to be done at a rate that was equal to the rate of modulation of the source of light to get a clear image.

The team saw a marked improvement in the image quality using the modulation-demodulation technique. The time the computer takes to execute the process depends on the image’s size. “For a 2160 × 2160 image, the computational time is about 20 milliseconds,” shares Bapan Debnath, PhD scholar at RRI and a co-author of the study. That is roughly the size of the image containing the LEDs. His colleagues had estimated the rate in 2016.

The team repeated the experiment a few times and observed the improvement each time. Once, when the fog varied in intensity during the observation, they did not record a marked improvement in the image quality. In this case, there was a strong wind, and they observed fog trails across the scene. The density of the water droplets in the air changed as time passed, which rendered the modulation-demodulation technique less effective.

Next, the researchers changed the experimental setup. They made an external material, a piece of cardboard kept at a distance of 20 centimetres from the LEDs, to reflect the light to the camera. The distance between the cardboard and the camera was 75 metres. The modulated light reflected from the cardboard travelled through the fog and was then captured by the camera. They demonstrated how their technique still significantly improved the quality of the resulting image.

Repeating the experiment under sunny conditions, they found that after performing the demodulation of the source, the image quality was high enough to distinguish the LEDs from the strongly reflected sunlight.

The study was partially funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

The cost of the technique is low, requiring only a few LEDs and an ordinary desktop computer, which can execute the technique within a second. The method can improve the landing techniques of aeroplanes by providing the pilot with a good view of beacons on the runway, significantly better than relying only on reflected radio waves as is presently the case. The technique can help reveal obstacles in the path that would otherwise be hidden by fog in rail, sea, and road transportation and would also help spotting lighthouse beacons. More research can demonstrate the effectiveness in such real-life conditions. The team is investigating whether the technique can apply to moving sources.

Marine geohazards take place when the seafloor is unstable and is not able to withstand the transport processes of marine sediments from landwards deep into the ocean bottom. In such a situation, placement of drilling rigs becomes hazardous due to instability of the seabed.

While understanding marine sediments’ interaction during their flow over the seabed is crucial to detect triggers of marine hazards like landslides, associated morphological investigation is a very challenging task, and geophysical/seismic prospecting methods are essential for it.

Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, and scientists from Norway and Switzerland used high-resolution 3D seismic data to unravel geomorphology of recurrent cases of movement of soil, sand, regolith, and rock downslope like a solid in Taranaki basin off New Zealand.  This is technically called mass wasting of sediments.  The study led by Prof. Kalachand Sain was published in the journal ‘Basin Research’.

With the help of 3D seismic data, the study offers a unique approach to comprehend the recurrent mass wasting processes and also understand how the seabed interacts with the bottom surface of marine sediments. The geological period between 23.03 and 2.5 Million years ago called Neogene succession preserves vertical stacks of mass transport deposits (MTDs) from the Miocene to Pliocene — different epochs that fall within the Neogene geological period. The Miocene (23.03 to 5.33 Mn years ago) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene period and towards the end of this epoch starts the Pliocene epoch (5.33 to 2.5 Mn years ago. The study shows that the mass transport deposits are characterized into blocky-MTDs consisting of moderate to high amplitude, variably deformed rafted blocks, and chaotic masses composed of slides and debris flow deposits indicating a disturbed marine environment.

The study will help understand different flow mechanisms associated with sediment movement over the seafloor. It will also shed light on several flow indicators that define the dynamics of the sediment mass movement or the dominant transport directions and mechanism of the mass flow. Understanding of these phenomena can help apprehend precursors of marine geohazards or the nature and physiography of the seafloor over which sediments can move.  According to WIHG team, similar geomorphological exercises can be extended to Indian and global marine sedimentary basins.

The estimated cost of the Missionwill be Rs. 4077 crore for a period of 5 years to be implemented in a phase-wise manner. The estimated cost for the first phase for the 3 years (2021-2024) would be Rs.2823.4 crore. Deep Ocean Mission with be a mission mode project to support the Blue Economy Initiatives of the Government of India. Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) will be the nodal Ministry implementing this multi-institutional ambitious mission.

The Deep Ocean Mission consists of the following six major components:

1. Development of Technologies for Deep Sea Mining, and Manned Submersible: A manned submersible will be developed to carry three people to a depth of 6000 metres in the ocean with suite of scientific sensors and tools. Only a very few countries have acquired this capability. An Integrated Mining System will be also developed for mining Polymetallic Nodules from 6000 m depth in the central Indian Ocean. The exploration studies of minerals will pave way for the commercial exploitation in the near future, as and when commercial exploitation code is evolved by the International Seabed Authority, an UN organization. This component will help the Blue Economy priority area of exploring and harnessing of deep sea minerals and energy.
2. Development of Ocean Climate Change Advisory Services: A suite of observations and models will be developed to understand and provide future projections of important climate variables on seasonal to decadal time scales under this proof of concept component. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of coastal tourism.
3. Technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity: Bio-prospecting of deep sea flora and fauna including microbes and studies on sustainable utilization of deep sea bio-resources will be the main focus. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of Marine Fisheries and allied services.
4. Deep Ocean Survey and Exploration: The primary objective of this component is to explore and identify potential sites of multi-metal Hydrothermal Sulphides mineralization along the Indian Ocean mid-oceanic ridges. This component will additionally support the Blue Economy priority area of deep sea exploration of ocean resources.
5. Energy and freshwater from the Ocean: Studies and detailed engineering design for offshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) powered desalination plant are envisaged in this proof of concept proposal. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of off-shore energy development.
6. Advanced Marine Station for Ocean Biology. This component is aimed as development of human capacity and enterprise in ocean biology and engineering. This component will translate research into industrial application and product development through on-site business incubator facilities. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of Marine Biology, Blue trade and Blue manufacturing.

The technologies required for deep sea mining have strategic implications and are not commercially available. Hence, attempts will be made to indigenise technologies by collaborating with leading institutes and private industries. A research vessel for deep ocean exploration would be built in an Indian shipyard which would create employment opportunities. This mission is also directed towards capacity development in Marine Biology, which will provide job opportunities in Indian industries. In addition, 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 MSME and Start-ups.

Oceans, which cover 70 per cent of the globe, remain a key part of our life. About 95 percent of Deep Ocean remains unexplored. For India, with its three sides surrounded by the oceans and around 30 per cent of the country’s population living in coastal areas, ocean is a major economic factor supporting fisheries and aquaculture, tourism, livelihoods and blue trade. Oceans are also storehouse of food, energy, minerals, medicines, modulator of weather and climate and underpin life on Earth. Considering importance of the oceans on 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. Its 7517 km long coastline is home to nine coastal states and 1382 islands. The Government of India’s Vision of New India by 2030 enunciated in February 2019 highlighted the Blue Economy as one of the ten core dimensions of growth.