Nanotech will take India unawares, warns expert

BANGALORE, INDIA: As per reports, Indian electronics industry is touted to touch $60 billion in 2011 and that nano-enabled products will be a $1.6 trillion global market in another three years.

“However, Indian electronics and IT entrepreneurs seem to be more at lax, and are letting off a great opportunity under the pretext 'nanotechnology is still far away and is a problem for the next decade',” says N Seshagiri, former Special Secretary, DIT & Planning Commission, Govt of India. He was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day ISA Summit 2011, which began here on Monday.

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“Nanotechnology is just three years away and India will be caught unawares. Things are no longer slow as it used to be. Everything will be based upon nanotechnology soon. If necessary initiatives are taken today, India can go ahead and become the leaders in nanotechnology,” he adds.

Initiatives such as Nano-S&T Park in Bangalore will increase the Indian presence in the global market place.

According to him, India can still do it big in the NT space because although NT, with nano-biotechnology, has already made a foray into health care sector, it is yet to penetrate electronics and IT industry significantly.

He also noted that India and China, owing to their huge human resource base, are at a very strong position to avail the nanotech onset because it calls for large-scale testing, which is human-resource intensive and since R&D is a very expensive affair, outsourcing could be an option that companies are looking at.

Moreover, with low entry cost for NT, companies from India and China can leverage the opportunity as well.

Seshagiri also adds that nanotech will bring disruptive changes in the material and component layer, especially in the hardware system layer. However, software system layer will not be affected much for the time being, which explains why Indian software industry is not so excited about this technology. However, once Quantum-Dot Probabilistic Computers enter, even the latter will start making their foray.

The expert calls for awareness drives and newer packages and initiatives from the Indian Government so that India spruces itself up to face the nanotech era.

“The present IPR regime in India is good; however, not good enough now for NT. We need a system where both parties in a partnership consider it a ‘win-win’ deal,” he signs off.