About Resource Person: A researcher, maritime strategist, technocrat and entrepreneur, Dr. (Cdr) Arnab Das is the founder and Director of Maritime Research Center (MRC), Pune and he personally drives all the initiatives. Dr. Das completed his Masters and PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi while serving in the Indian Navy as a uniformed officer for two decades.

Module 1: In this module, you will learn about the basics of Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA), including the key stakeholders involved, the importance of UDA, about UDA framework, freshwater management, and the way forward for the UDA Framework.

Module 2: In this module, you will learn about the interconnection of the UDA Framework with the SAGAR vision, which was proposed by our Honourable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. This module will give you context on India’s status in the global order and various projects that support the SAGAR vision.

Module 3: In this module, you will learn about various challenges associated with UDA in tropical waters, including political, economic, and physical challenges. It will further make you understand the most important developments of the Cold War period in context with the UDA and how the Indo-Pacific strategy is shaping up in the new global order.

Module 4: In this module, you will learn about sustainability concerns in the Indian Ocean region, including acoustic habitat degradation, IMO guidelines, IUU fishing activities, oil spills, pollution caused by plastic, and ecosystem degradation. This module will also give you context on India’s status in the new global order with unique tropical characteristics.

Module 5: In this module, you will learn about the effective maritime governance and the need for a UDA framework. It will further make you understand the tyranny of small decisions and the tyranny of the commons, with various regulatory challenges like binaries and political will, a lack of local inputs, a disconnect between governance levels, and various limitations of the scientific community.

Module 6: In this module, you will learn about the Underwater Data Analytics Framework, which will help you understand the acoustic propagation in IOR with various tropical characteristics. It will further help you understand the underwater channel model, modelling and simulation, and field validation in the Indian Ocean region.

Module 7: In this module, you will learn about underwater robotics and its challenges and opportunities, along with the basics of underwater robotics. It will further help you understand the classification of underwater robotics with their applications, types of AUVs, and design and development.

Module 8: In this module, you will learn about underwater deployment and the various types of deployment and their applications. It will also help you understand tropical characteristics like sensor performance, poor signal-to-noise ratio, safety of deployed assets, etc., along with challenges and opportunities for underwater deployment.

Module 9: In this module, you will learn about acoustic habitat degradation and management, which includes acoustics in the underwater domain and various sources of underwater noise like shipping noise, wind noise, and biological noise. It will further help you understand the marine spatial planning tool. Bubble Feeding by Big Whales and recent incidents on the Indian Coast.

Module 10: In this module, you will learn about digital transformation and enhanced livelihoods for coastal communities, which include the digital ocean, digital tools, and the development of an APY analysis tool for seaweed cultivation and shrimp farming. It will further help you understand the workings of the tool and digital transformation for coastal communities and their livelihoods from a governance perspective, as well as the challenges of the APY Tool.