India Reaches 5,000 Metres: The Deep-Sea Mining Capability Behind Its Next Critical-Minerals Bet

India's critical-minerals strategy is moving below the seabed. Under the ₹4,077 crore Deep Ocean Mission, NIOT has demonstrated indigenous deep-sea mining crawlers at depths exceeding 5,000 metres in the Indian Ocean. The milestone does not mean commercial mining has begun. It means India has started building the subsea engineering layer that must exist before its exploration rights can become a supply chain.