Nanotechnology in India needs jobs to survive its hype!

Nanotechnology in India is just coming up in research and technology field. But still our papa and grandpa who everyday reads newspapers and watches news on TV hardly knows about it. So it does not help a guy who wants to go in this field, with his father in IT industry and grandfather retired from a Government tech firm. He does not receive motivation or help in order to take this "risky" step. Instead he is being lured into the ever popular IT industry job for both money and career security.

These 2 latter reasons are creating hurdles in India for nanotechnology to bring significant changes or employment to the society. The major problem of nanotechnology in India is that it has negligible amount of placements for now quite a handsome amount of passing out nanotech graduates. They either have to join some IT giant (because nobody else bothers to give them employment except some rare cases) or else they have to continue fruitless research here in India which does not give useful products or research papers either. If we compare this scenario with other developing nations like China, Germany, Israel, etc they have significantly higher number of publications and employment than India in the field of nanotechnology. The figures suggests around twice the number of papers are published in these nations than that of India according to Thomson Reuters Global Research Report on India http://science.thomsonreuters.com/m/pdfs/grr-India-oct09_ag0908174.pdf

As I worked in a nanotechnology company for almost 2 years and got chance to interview and interact with the growing nanotech talented youth in India. I came to know that there is no shortage of talent but the need is to give this talent a suitable direction and chance to show their abilities.

So I would like to raise this serious issue which can kick start brain-drain of nanotech talent from India like it has happened in many technology sectors in India in the past times. I would like to inform the Government so that it can take steps to retain this talent and use it for it's growth. Serious employment shortage in this technological field of the future has to be looked into at first priority and steps like funding nanotech startups, starting nanotech entrepreneurship cells in colleges, Government funding for product based nanotech applications has to be increased by many folds.

Nanotechnology can provide solution to many problems of our lives but its own survival and development is in trouble. So I would like to request professors, students, government officials to seriously look into this issue and work; not to spread the name of nanotechnology as another bright technology of the future, but as another source of mass employment in India.

Why mostly Indian small companies fail to make global footprint unlike Chinese counterparts?

This is a very important question today that needs to be answered. When we want India to shine and become a super power we cannot expect only it's large companies to perform, expand and in the process get transformed into global giants.

It is high time that Indian small companies should expand its client base from the present regional businesses to overseas shores. But what I have witnessed personally is that mostly small businessmen who are managing their respective businesses in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai & other metros, cities etc, do not take this thought seriously or with a zeal. They tend to stick to the business clientele with whom they had dealt with, since their business was a start up.

This is good in the sense that these businessmen has the acumen to manage the business and hold clients for long. But they have some hitch in acting to expand further at national or global levels.

Let me put down the reasons in bullets:

1. They have a wrong notion in mind that this would require a lot of money investment.

2. They might lose the regional clients if they will concentrate on expansion.

3. They do not have the resources to publicize their business abroad.

4. Their cost of development, production etc will come higher than China, so they will not be able to compete.

5. How will they manage the expanded version of their business, when they feel it is already full of hassles in India?

These all are myths in today's world.

A very small amount of investment can do good and precise publicity. As so many channels like website, blogs, local & global search engines plus trade site listings are available mostly for free Moreover even if some are not then they are available at very affordable rates which can amount to at most 1%-5% of the annual income.

The only problem that needs to be considered now is: Chinese competition. But what I have learned through my personal experience is that businessmen here in India, half of the times are simply unaware of the price the Chinese counterparts quotes to overseas clients. The prices comes either at par or slightly lower than India. The 2 positive points which makes us overlook the pricing issue are:

1. We do not do piracy or break copyright laws when business deals are concerned, as compared to other parts of the world.

2. Our products have the better quality and standards than the global counterparts.

So what is required now is that we have to concentrate on strong market research results, facts and figures only, rather on notions that has been built in our minds.

We need to expand our small companies into medium and then large business players and so in order to do that we need to provide deliverables on time (this point is Achilles' Heel in India as people are a bit relaxed even when doing business).

So if we have decided to expand our businesses and build our nation, we should start acting now. These steps not only brings prosperity in our lives but also pride for India.