India's nanotech spend lower than Taiwan

New Delhi, Sep 11: Despite the huge growth of the Indian economy, public expenditure for nanotechnology development in India stays at mere seven million dollars per annum, while countries like Taiwan spend 102.4 million dollars a year, a study said.

According to an Assocham-Frost&Sullivan study, Germany spends 395.5 million dollars annually on nanotechnology development while France accounts for 301.1 million dollars.

UK spends is 180 million dollars, while 233.5 million dollars is spent by South Korea, the study added.

''India also fares relatively lower in funding nano-technology projects from its private sector contributions, which vary from more than 50 per cent in the US, two-third in Japan, 36 per cent across emerging Asian countries as against 22 per cent of India,'' the study adds.

The European Union leads the global nanotech-based scientific publications by a share of almost 41 per cent, followed by US and Canada with 24 per cent, Japan at 13 per cent and rest of Asia-Pacific with 14 per cent.

''In India, the percentage is as meagre as that of eight per cent. Despite, the growth with which India is witnessing for its nano-technology is measured in double digit,'' said Assocham President Venugopal N Dhoot.

The study notes that over the past few years, China has shown considerable aggression when it comes to scientific publications.

However, the number of citations, which is a direct indicator of the quality of research conducted, greatly vary across regions.

Smaller countries such as Switzerland, which have relatively lesser number of publications to its name, receive more than 10 citations per paper, followed by Netherlands and the US with 9.2 and the EU countries receiving almost 6.68 per paper, thereby, delivering cutting edge research.

On the other hand, aggressive publications from countries such as China receives a mere 2.42 citations per paper, whereas India receives 3.15, second only to Australia, thereby reflecting the credibility, relevance and confidence of the global research fraternity toward the research conducted.

The global nanotechnology development, although at nascent stage, is gradually evolving and is not just restricted to US and EU, but is equally spread across the Asia Pacific.

''While the research and development efforts in the West are largely restricted to the designing and development of cutting-edge pharmaceuticals and drug delivery systems, it is centered on devices, gadgets and other areas in the Asia Pacific,'' the study says.

India's neighbouring countries such as China are investing huge amount in the biotechnology sector and are attracting investors worldwide.

Cheap labor and production costs offer a great deal of opportunity for companies to employ the workforce available in China to enhance the productivity and manufacturing of biotechnology-based drugs in an efficient manner, the study noted.

The availability of workforce that is as competent as those in the Indian subcontinent poses a retention threat for the biotechnology industry in India.

Unlike the west, the Indian bioresearch community has not favoured the prospects of industrial tie-ups. The disadvantage that researchers envision is the limitation of free will and pursuit of desired projects.

The interference of the industry would steer the direction of the research toward the want of the industry. Thus, majority of the scientific progress in India is not commensurate and coexistent with the interest of the life science industrial setup in India.

''There is a dearth of venture capitalist firms and funds that would be willing to invest toward the development of new establishments in life sciences,'' the study says.

Lately, a few venture capitalist firms such as Morgan Stanley and ICICI Ventures have stepped into the biotechnology sector. But the thrust has been more on biotech products and less on biotech research and development. ''This approach seriously limits the scope of the funding and thus tends to create a vacuum in the commercial space of the biotechnology sector,'' the study says.

UNI