The Hindu Business Line : `Nano tech, the new wealth creator'

Nano tech use
Nano-sensors could be installed in the fields to identify irrigational requirements. Cattle owners could use the technology to identify the health and nutritional requirements of the cattle.

A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE: The Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukharjee, with (from left) the Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal; the Chairman, Assocham Knowledge Millennium Committee, Mr K.L. Chugh; Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Harry Kroto, and the Assocham President, Mr Anil K. Agarwal, at the inaugural session of 4th Knowledge Millennium Summit `Nanotechnology & Biotechnology - Meet the future Nano Bio billionaires' at Vigyan Bhavan in the Capital on Monday. - Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , March 27

Riding on the success of bio-technology, Ms Kiran Majumdar Shaw of Biocon became a billionaire in a short span of time. New technologies like nano and bio-technology offer similar opportunities for wealth creation for many others, said Dr R.A. Mashelkar, Director-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research here.

Speaking at the 4th Knowledge Millennium Summit of Assocham, he said integration of nano and bio-technologies would not only enhance agricultural produce but also accelerate manufacturing.

Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Harry Kroto, in his address, said that real sciences should be taught from the school level with higher emphasis on physics, chemistry and biology.

The Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal, listed the various usages of nano-technology. He said nano-sensors could be installed in the fields to identify irrigational requirements. Cattle owners could use the technology to identify the health and nutritional requirements of the cattle, he said. Similarly, the technology could be used by humans for the purpose of drug delivery and health monitoring.

In the defence sector too nano technology offered immense opportunities, said the Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee. ``The list of possibilities ... include intelligent and completely autonomous short and long range accurate weapons, improved stealth and means to defeat current stealth techniques, global information networks and local battle field systems, self-repairing military equipment besides others,'' he said.

The 21st century belonged to the life sciences wherein a number of exciting discoveries and inventions in both sectors would change the quality of life on this planet, said Mr Mukherjee. The future would belong to those who adopt amalgamation of nano and bio-technology without delay to increase their GDP.

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