India has achieved a historic milestone in its quest to explore the final frontier of the deep sea. As part of a landmark Indo-French collaboration, two Indian aquanauts have successfully completed record-breaking dives to depths of over 5,000 meters in the Atlantic Ocean, placing India in an elite group of fewer than a half-dozen nations with this capability.
The historic dives, which took place on August 5 and 6, 2025, were carried out by Retired Navy Commander Jatinder Pal Singh and Raju Ramesh, a senior scientist from the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai. Aboard the French submersible Nautile, they plunged to a depth of 5,002 meters, with Commander Singh setting the new national record. Using the submersible’s robotic arm, they successfully planted both the Indian and French flags on the ocean floor, a powerful symbol of their achievement and international partnership.
This expedition is a critical preparatory step for India’s indigenous Samudrayaan Mission, which aims to send three Indian aquanauts to a depth of 6,000 meters in the indigenously developed submersible Matsya 6000 by December 2027.
“This is part of India’s ‘double conquest’ of unexplored frontiers,” said Union Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh, highlighting the achievement’s significance alongside the recent space flight of Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla.
The deep-sea mission is a key component of India’s larger Deep Ocean Mission, a flagship initiative launched to sustainably explore and harness marine resources for the nation’s “Blue Economy.” The experience and data collected from the historic dive will be instrumental in the final development and testing of the Matsya 6000, which will be equipped with scientific instruments for mineral exploration and marine biodiversity studies.
