DRDO’s oceanographic research vessel ‘INS Sagardhwani’ embarks on Sagar Maitri Mission-4 to establish long-term scientific partnerships with Indian Ocean Rim countries

Source: The post is based on the article “DRDO’s oceanographic research vessel ‘INS Sagardhwani’ embarks on Sagar Maitri Mission-4 to establish long-term scientific partnerships with Indian Ocean Rim countries” published in “PIB” on 13th October 2023

What is the News?

INS Sagardhwani has started on a two-month long Sagar Maitri (SM) Mission-4 from Southern Naval Command (SNC), Kochi.

What is the Sagar Maitri Mission?

Initiative of: DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization) 

Vision: To support the objective of the Prime Minister’s policy declaration ‘Safety and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR)’.

Aim: To promote closer cooperation among Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) countries in the areas socio-economic and scientific research especially in ocean research.

– The mission focuses on establishing long-term scientific partnerships with eight IOR countries namely: Oman, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

Under this mission, DRDO has initiated a scientific component named ‘MAITRI (Marine and Allied Interdisciplinary Training and Research Initiative)’.It focuses on establishing long-term collaboration with IOR countries in the field of ‘Ocean Research and Development’.

Missions under Sagar Maitri: Previous missions under Sagar Maitri visited countries like Myanmar, Malaysia, and Singapore.

– The current mission includes scientific deployment of INS Sagardhwani in the Northern Arabian Sea and initiating collaborative research programmes with the University in Oman.

What is INS Sagardhwani?

INS Sagardhwani is an oceanographic research vessel.

It has been designed and developed by the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi, a premier systems laboratory of the DRDO.