On the seventeenth of August, 1987, in the city of New York, a historic decision was taken by the Preparatory Commision of the International Seabed Authority to allocate to India EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS for the exploration of polymetallic nodules in an area of about one hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. the relevant document is reproduced below.

• Pursuant to resolution II of the Thrid United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea and the Preparatory Commission of 5 September 1986 and the statement of understanding on the implementation of resolution II of 10 April 1987, the General committe, in accordance with Rule 14, paragraph 3, of the rules of procedure of the Preparatory commission, has considered the application of the Government of the Republic of India for registration as a pioneer investor under resolution II. The General Committe had before it a report of the Group of Technical Experts established by the Preparatory Commision to examine the application. In addition the applicant had released for the consideration of the General Committe the formal part of its application.
• The General Committe noted that in accordance with paragraph 4 of the statement of understanding of 5 September 1986, the Group of Technical Experts had determined that the application of India was in confirmity with resolution II in particular with the principle of equal estimated commercial value, subject to the guidelines and procedures set forth in the above-mentioned statements of understanding.
• The General Committe having considered the application of India, taking into account the report submited by the Group of Technical Experts, has noted with appreciation the conclusions reached by the Group of Technical Experts:
  • That the application of India has been submitted in accordance with resolution II and the statements of understanding contained in documents LOS/PCN/L.41/Rev. 1 and LOS/PCN/L.43 Rev. 1;
  • That Areas A and B in the application of India, as adjusted and identified in Fig. 2 of the report of the Group of Technical Experts, are of equal estimated commercial value;
  • That area B, as adjusted should be designated as the reserved area; and
  • That Area A, as adjusted which includes an area of 52.3 thousand kilometres identified by the Applicant, should be designated as the pioneer area to be allocated to the Applicatant.
• It further notes that the list of co-ordinates of Areas A and B as adjusted, is deposited with Secretary-General and form annex 2 of the report of the Group of Technical Experts.
• Accordingly, the General Committe taking into account the readiness of India to comply with the obligations of pioneer investors under resolution II and the above-mentioned statements of understanding.
  • DECIDES
    • To designate Area B, referred to above, as the part of the application area which is to be reserved for the conduct of activities by the Authority in the Area through the Enterprise or in association with developing States;
    • To allocate Area A, as reffered to above, as a pioneer area to the applicant, the Government of India;
    • To annex the co-ordinates of Area A and B hereto;
    • That a certificate of registration shall be issued to the applicant.
• The Certificate of registration of the application of the Government of Republic of India shall record:
  • The identity of the applicant and of the certifying state;
  • The date of receipt of the application and any revisions thereof;
  • the date of the decision for registration as a pioneer investor;
  • The precise geographical co-ordinates of the area allocated to the appllicant as a pioneer area;
  • The exclusive right of the pioneer investor to carry out pioneer activities in the pioneer area allocated to it under resolution II of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea;
  • The requirements of compliance by the pioneer investor with its obligations under resolutions II and the above-mentioned statements of understanding;
  • The requirements of compliance by certifying state with its commitments under resolution II
• The Gereral Committe REQUESTS the Secretary-General of the United Nations;
  • To inform all the participants of the Preparatory Commission of this decision;
  • To give due publicity to the co-ordinates of Areas A and B;
  • To maintain a register for the purpose of registering the pioneer investor and to record the reserved area;
  • To advise the applicant of the administrative arrangements necessary for the payment of fee and to prepare and issue to the applicant a certificate of registration.
    Meeting of the General Committe 17 August 1987

I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE ABOVE DECISION WAS TAKEN BY THE GENERAL COMMITTE ON 17 AUGUST 1987.

A six year long challenging effor in exploration by a group of scientists and technicians was finally acclaimed by scientists, technocrats and policy makers of many countries. To the world of oceanographers it was source of amazement to realise that a developing country like India has become the first nation to secure registration of a claim in the international waters. This achievement was applauded by our Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi on 26th of August , 1987. Everyone in the Parliament joined him in landing the scientists and engineers who made this task successful. To put in his own words;

" The registration of our claim for a deep seabed mine site indeed provides a concrete indication of indigenous scientist capabilities and achievements", "I am sure this house will agree to place on record our appreciation for excellent work done by our scientists and engineers who have taken up the challenging task for exploring new horizons of science to unravel the mysteries of ocean".

I appears appropriate the context of the Prime Minister's appreciative words to mention about the quality of the data produced. The quality of the data presented to the PREPCOM was such that at no stage was it challenged by any member of the PREPCOM, throughout the procedure of processing our claim. This indicates, as rightlymentioned by the Prime Minister" an excellent work". The scientists and engineers in turn provided consistent and sustained commitment to this task in order to make it a milestone in the world's oceanographic history. The history of development and the history made by the polymetallic nodule project is a chronicle of matchless endeavour, efficiency and challenge and a landmark contribution towards self reliance.

The registration of India as Pioneer Investor looked a distant dream during the early days, but the dedication and the capabilities of the Indian scientists and engineers brought it to fruition in remarkably short time .The scientist data like abundance , grade and distribution of polymetallic nodules, the seafloor sediments, bathymetry, magnetics and daily weather data collected during the various expeditions, today forms the largest data base availble in the world on any basin of the Indian Ocean. Apart from the applied nature of work in the project, spin-offs are the many research papers and articles published by the project scientists in national an international journals. Detailed research programme as a part of this project is underway in various aspects of nodule chemistry, its nature and distribution, genesis, isotopes signatures nd palaoenvironment reconstruction.

Today the project scientists and engineers can handle the planning of research vessel programmes, chalk out the strategies for future work, process tje data frp, sophisticated equipment, forecast the budget estimates for the projects, evaluate the resources. Thus a multidisciplinary cor-ordination and managerial expertise is available within the country.