• Under the Deep Ocean Mission launched by the Government of India, a manned scientific submersible has been proposed to be developed for deep ocean exploration.
• The project is named as Samudrayaan.

About Deep Ocean Mission

• Deep Ocean Mission, undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), is an initiative to explore deep ocean for resources and develop deep sea technologies for sustainable use of ocean resources
• With its launch India joins six other countries (USA, Russia, Japan, France & China) engaged in exploring the ocean depths for studies and research.

• National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) is an autonomous Institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences,

• It is under Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).

Progress made
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) had developed and tested a 'personnel sphere’ for a manned submersible system for 500 metre water depth rating.

Personnel Sphere of 2.1m diameter to be used as a crew module up to 500 m water depth has been developed using mild steel and tested up to 600 m water depth in the Bay of Bengal using the research Vessel Sagar Nidhi during October, 2021.

Following the success of the trial, the "Samudrayaan" program was formally launched on 29 October 2021.