What Is a Pioneer Investor?
International Seabed Authority has officially designated India as a Pioneer Investor
- Pioneer Investor is An early investment made in any new sector or technology. E.g. Polymetallic nodules at the ocean bed.
India’s Step for PMN and Blue Economy:
- The International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the Ministry of Earth Sciences also exchanged PMN (Polymetallic Nodules) exploration extension contract
- India is framing the Blue Economy policy framework, which aims at covering the coastal economy, tourism, marine fishery, deep-sea mining etc.
- As a part of the Deep Ocean Mission, India concluded the world’s first locomotive trials of a deep-sea mining system in the central Indian ocean last year (2022).
Deep Ocean Mission:
- It would develop a manned submersiblethat can carry three people to a depth of 6,000 meters in the ocean for exploring and, then, extracting minerals in the deep seabed.
- It also aims to explore marine biodiversity for the sustainable use of resources.
- It has recently been allocated Rs 600 Cr(Budget 2023-24)
International Seabed Authority:
- ISA (HQ: Jamaica, est. 1994) is an intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Union established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and its 1994 Agreement on Implementation
- It comes under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)for monitoring all activities related to mineral resources in the deep sea.
- The international seabed is the area that lies beyond the limits of national jurisdiction and represents around 50% of the total area of the world’s oceans.
