Thursday, February 22, 2007

Call to Industry-Govt.-Academia partnership in India

The Nanotechnology Conclave 2007 organised under the auspices of International Engineering and Technology Trade Fair saw a call for the Industry a.k.a CII -Govt.-Academia triumvirate to come together to put into place a Center for Nanotechnology by Prof V S Ramamurthy, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT.

As he put it up, the challenges that our Nanotech efforts face are-
  • The gap between industry and research labs
  • Converting lab ideas into successful business proposition
  • Absence of enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Bringing in technology incubators linked with vibrant R&D labs, good mentor base and venture finance access to bridge the gap
  • Urgent need for proper infrastructure facilities and human resource development initiatives through public private partnership in the field of nano science

Hope the Government babus at the conclave takes up the cue and comes up with a solid policy to take up these issues ..

Source: SDAIndia

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Nanotech jobs???

A few years back one of my schoolmates decided to go all the way to Australia to study the "Hotest Up-Coming technology" in town. They called it Bio-Technology. Four years hence after his Post-grad in the Hot Technology from a top-notch University, he works at a Call-Center which services Aussies. Though almost all columns shouted ad-nauseam about the serious "talent-crunch", on the ground scene was entirely different (as my friend found out soon).
The explanation is that though there is enough talent there isn't 'quality talent'.

Circa 2007, Lux Research Inc. report "Hiring Nanotech Talent" talks of a veritable talent crunch. The demand for White-Collar (read: 'quality talent') is expected to quintuple to about 30,000 from the present 5,300. An additional tens of thousands of blue collared jobs in manufacturing and allied sectors. Though in today's parlance this could mean any sector from Electronics to Phrama, which would be remotely related to Nanotech and hence difficult to quantify.

A month back one of the famous faces of Nanotechnology, Howard Lovy who pens the NanoBot blog put up a postadvertising his availability for employment. If Howard Lovy finds it difficult to get a job in the Nanotech sector what about the rest. So all those people (which includes me) who are all set to fly into the world of Nanotech need to have a hard and pragmatic look at it. It has a lot of potential and could well be the technology of the future... But for those who jump on the bandwagon just for the glitter... well.........................

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Indian research centers take nanotech route to cancer treatment

AIIMS & IITs have decided to take the Nanotech route for cancer treatment. Jointly, they have developed a set of nanoparticles used ot kill Cancerous cells. The product is supposedly in phase I clinical trials.


Source: cities.expressindia.com