News
29 March 2007, EuroIndiaNet
Nanotechnology and Society in India
Five Indian researchers from different disciplines answered some questions on Nanotechnology and Society in India, after the conference on “Fostering Innovation in Nanotechnology between EU & India”, 3 March 2007 at the Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. These researchers believed nanotechnology can benefit India’s development, but applied research and technology transfer to industry must be improved. There is a need for more and better education in nanotechnology and in entrepreneurship. At the same time, the respondents were aware of potential risks of engineered nanomaterials and societal impacts of nanotechnology. There is no public awareness in India, so it is unclear if the public will accept nanotechnology enabled products. The EU-India Nanotechnology Collaboration Platform can play a role in fostering beneficial applications of nanotechnology for India, while avoiding negative impacts. The respondents foresaw a role for their own organisation in this and also pinpointed other potential members.
How do you think the Indian society can benefit most from nanotechnology and its applications in the long term?
The nanotechnology research should address India’s problems: water, health/drug delivery, environment/harness renewable resources, and energy/electricity. The acute shortage of drinking water can be solved e.g. by development of physical filters with nanometre scale pores, or innovative ways to purify available water in semi-arid areas. Nanostructures for solar cells must be developed. Nanotechnology can also be applied in aerospace, automobiles, cosmetics, agriculture and food production. Computers and mobile phones may become more widely available thanks to cost reduction due to miniaturisation down to nanoelectronics. Professor Amarnath Maitra, Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, has written “Nanotechnology Initiative: A roadmap for India”, and is now trying to generate interest for it.
Currently, Indian basic science is comparable to research in Europe and the US, but applied research and technology transfer to industry is a bottleneck. Interdisciplinary nanotechnology development must help overcome this. Collaboration between natural scientists, engineers, economists and social scientists is necessary. Social scientists can contribute their knowledge of society’s problems, and direct the selection of the applications of the research of natural scientists and engineers.
Nanotechnology education is very important, for students in universities and colleges (studying for a Bachelor degree), but also outreach to school children and the general public. A Committee at the University of Delhi is developing a course for nanotechnology outreach in 2007. Nanotechnology education experts are discussing whether a full nanotechnology curriculum should be initiated at universities or if nanotechnology courses should be incorporated in existing monodisciplinary programmes. The Indian government is trying to stimulate a knowledge economy through several measures: In the budget for the year 2007-08, the government levies an additional cess of 1 percent on all taxes to fund secondary education and higher education. It is in addition to the cess of 2 percent to fund basic education. A Knowledge Commission constituted by the Government has submitted its report and has suggested several measures to strengthen the knowledge economy of the country. It also aims at making more Indian universities achieve world class levels. Universities are connected to a high bandwidth optical fibre network. In the University of Delhi, all seventy colleges and several departments of the University of Delhi are networked with optical fibre. The university has subscribed to large number of online scientific journals and data bases which are accessible by all the faculty, researchers and students. Entrepreneurship should be stimulated more in the Indian education system.
Which potential risks and societal consequences of applications of nanotechnology are acceptable and which are not acceptable to you? Why?
Risks of nanoparticles, in particular their dusty nature and potential toxicity must be addressed, including occupational safety. If properly addressed, the risks are acceptable. Economic disruption due to abundance of cheap products is acceptable. One should be aware that safety and other regulations and guidelines are not implemented as strictly in developing countries as in fully developed countries. Therefore, care should be taken to develop such guidelines in such a way that they can be implemented anywhere, and that implementation can easily be monitored. The Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) are funding research into risks of nanomaterials.
If nanobiotechnology leads to longer lifespans, this may create problems for society, but agricultural and medical applications of nanotechnology may also improve the quality of life.
The potential risks of molecular manufacturing, enabling everyone to start their personal nanofactory and producing anything including weapons and surveillance devices is an unacceptable risk. This may lead to an unstable arms race and criminal/terrorist use.
Nanotechnology is a new area, of which the potential benefits and risks are unknown. In biotechnology, there is some opposition to genetically modified seeds, also in India. Awareness of nanotechnology is very low in India, therefore public acceptance is not clear.
During the conference, Tiju Joseph of the Institute of Nanotechnology presented the EU-India Nanotechnology Collaboration Platform Plan. How can such a platform contribute to achieving those long term potential benefits of nanotechnology for the Indian society while avoiding unacceptable risks and consequences?
- Stimulating discussion of potential benefits, safety and societal issues of nanotechnology at schools and colleges, and in the media;
- Enabling exchange of innovative ideas for new technology development, especially in biomedical and agricultural applications;
- Monitoring abuse of nanotechnology.
What role do you and your organisation want to play in this?
- Peer reviewer/evaluator of research proposals;
- Production of nanoparticles by sol-gel technique (Dept of Electronics, University of Delhi);
- Synthesis and applications of metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles, nanopolymer (Dept of Chemistry, University of Delhi);
- High quality education in nanosciences and nanotechnologies and outreach, e.g: workshops with school children, college students, further education of college teachers, and educational programmes for the 24 hour TV channel “Technology Channel”, offering e-learning all over India (IIT Delhi).
Which organisations should be invited to join the EuroIndiaNet platform in your opinion?
- All institutes included in the who’s who plus two-three others;
- International Advanced Research Centre in Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad;
- Tata Chemicals, Pune.
Acknowledgement
This article summarises the views on nanotechnology and society in India and the role the EU-India Nanotechnology Collaboration Platform can play of the following participants in the meeting:
- Professor Vijay Kumar Kaul, Head Department of Business Economics, University of Delhi, South Campus;
- Professor Kidwai, Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi;
- Professor Mehra, Department of Electronics, University of Delhi;
- Professor Mehta, Department of Physics, IIT Delhi;
- Professor C.S. Sunandana, School of Physics, University of Hyderabad.
More information:
Last changed: 29 March 2007
