India's nanotech spending below global levels

NEW DELHI: Industry body Assocham on Tuesday said India lags behind many developing as well as developed economies when it comes to research and development spending in nanotechnology with annual investments touching a minuscule seven million dollar.

In a joint research with Frost and Sullivan, the industry body said public sector's spending on nanotechnology in India was even below Taiwan which spends $104 million annually.

Spending on nanotechnology development in Germany stands at $395.5 million while it is $301.1 million in France and $180 million in the UK.

The private sector is also not looking actively at the sector, accounting just 22 per cent of the total R&D spending in the sector compared to as much as 50 per cent in the US, 66 per cent in Japan. Private sector accounts for 36 per cent of total R&D spending in nanotechnology across emerging Asian countries, Assocham said.

The chamber said despite India's limited investment on creating scientific research data on nanotechnology, global research fraternity believes in Indian data and rates it over China whose scientific publications are almost five times that of India.

The study said China is investing hugely in the biotechnology sector and is attracting investors worldwide. India, on the other hand, has been unable to attract investment in the area.

Few venture capitalist firms such as Morgan Stanley and ICICI Ventures have invested more on biotech products and less on biotech research and development. This has created a vacuum in the commercial space of the biotechnology sector, the study said.