India and Norway will work jointly in the area of marine spatial planning for the next five years, the Ministry of Earth Sciences said on Wednesday. They have identified Lakshadweep and Puducherry as pilot sites for the project. The first project steering committee meeting with representatives from both the countries was conducted virtually recently after which the two countries have charted out a plan to ensure that human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe, and sustainable manner in areas such as energy, transportation, fisheries, aquaculture, tourism across multiple sectors.
This is a part of the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Initiative under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries in 2019. The two countries have decided to extend support for sustainable ocean resources utilisation to advance economic and social development in coastal areas, it said. The initiative, known as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), will be implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) for India.