Friday, December 07, 2007:
Bangalore Nano 2007 provided a platform for the researchers and industrialists from across the world to discuss opportunities on Nanotechnology existing in their part of the world. The event witnessed a series of presentations from selected speakers from India and abroad.
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Speaking on the topic, Commercialisation of Science, Keith O’ Nions, director, general science and innovation, dept for innovation, University & Skills, UK, said, "Nanotechnology is of all disciplines and it provides a global opportunity of more than $1 trillion by 2015. UK government has an annual funding for research of £100m. Through this, 23 centres have established to promote commercialisation and more than 1300 companies are active in Nanotechnology. UK accounts for almost one-third of all venture capital in Europe in the field of Nanotechnology. UK also set up and chaired ISO Technical Committee on Nanotechnology."
The lecture by Keith was followed by a session on 'Research to Reality' chaired by Dr Amit Biswas, senior vice president, R&D, Reliance Industries Ltd. The session saw eminent speakers from across the world.
Dr Faruq Marikar, MD, Nanobiz, USA said, "As India is gaining entry into the global top tier in numerous industry sectors, Innovation should come in naturally. Indians have proven that they can innovate in disciplined ways, here, there and everywhere. The necessary and sufficient conditions for innovation are trained scientists and engineers, tools and equipment and creative talent. A lot of learning is necessary to get there; and help is available if you ask for it, and pay for it."
Dr Pradip, Tata R&D Design Centre, Pune, said, "Process engineering and scale up issues are critical in Nanotechnology. To meet application needs of the common man an innovative use of existing technology and new business models are needed."
Prof Richard A L Jones, professor EPSRC, professional fellow and senior strategic advisor, Nanotechnology, dept of physics and astronomy, University of Sheffield, said, "Nanoscience through engineering to application is one of five priority research themes for the UK in 2007. Key applications are expected in the area of sustainable energy, medicine and healthcare and information and communication technology [ICT]. Nanotechnology can help solve pressing social and economic problems but it needs partnerships between different academic disciplines, between academia and industry and between nations."
"The grand challenge for 2008 is harvesting solar energy cheaply on a large scale using Nanotechnology," added Jones.
Dr G Sundararajan, director, ARCI, Hyderabad, said, "The three challenges we face in commercialisation of Nanomaterial technologies are bridging research and industry gap, skilled human resource and health, safety and regulation issues."
Dr Ajay P Malshe, co-founder and chief technology officer, Nanomech, USA, said, "We have brought out many products developed using Nanotechnology to the market like NanoGlide, TuffTek, Guard-In-Fresh, Multicare, etc. We are very much excited about the prospects of nanotechnology for the humankind."
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