The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) was established in November 1993 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India.

The goals of the group are to promote programs consistent with the overall development perspective of the country in the infrastructure sector thereby contributing to the nation building exercise.

The group caters to specific sponsored-research and industrial sector projects by providing technical support and time-bound, result-oriented research.

Marine Sensor Systems group was established in September 2005 to cater to the mandate of NIOT to develop and demonstrate technologies for oceans.

The IDA enlisted the then Department of Ocean Development (DOD), presently Ministry of Earth Sciences, as one of the implementing agencies for carrying out activities that will recuperate the socio-economic status of the island community.

This group was created to cater to the sustained development of technology towards harnessing the enormous potential offered by the ocean towards the energy sectors and also to the industries related to offshore activities with particular reference to gas hydrates.

Gas hydrate estimated to contribute a very large amount of methane, a potential clear hydrocarbon fuel resource.

Development of deep-water work class ROV by NIOT in collaboration with Experimental Design Bureau of Oceanological Engineering (EDBOE), Moscow was initiated by Polymetallic Nodule Management (PMN) Board of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt.

Later, OOS inherited lead responsibility for a number of important and well-established observational programmes in the northern Indian Ocean.

In 2001, VMC committed to manage a barge, Sagar Shakthi, that was used to implement a 1MW gross pilot plant to demonstrate OTEC technology, which was the first ever such attempt in the world.