IndiaPosted at: Oct 25 2026 11:46AM


India’s Nanotechnology challenge: Turning scientific research into marketable products

Dr Kirti Saxena
New Delhi, Oct 25 (UNI) Nanotechnology promises to transform industries ranging from healthcare to semiconductors. For India, however, the central question is not whether its scientists can manipulate materials at the scale of billionths of a metre. It is whether the country can turn that expertise into products that businesses can manufacture competitively and consumers can afford.
The distinction matters. Scientific discoveries do not automatically become commercial technologies. Between a promising laboratory experiment and a marketable product lie expensive prototyping, specialised manufacturing, testing, regulatory approval and the willingness of investors to finance uncertain, long-term development. For a country seeking to strengthen its industrial base and reduce dependence on imported technologies, this is a consequential gap to close.
Nanotechnology operates at dimensions measured in nanometres, each equivalent to one-billionth of a metre. At this scale, materials can exhibit properties different from those they possess in their conventional forms. Their electrical behaviour, strength, catalytic activity and ability to detect biological or chemical substances can change, creating opportunities for new devices and industrial processes.
The applications extend well beyond miniature electronics. Nanoscale materials can help researchers develop diagnostic sensors, drug-delivery systems, advanced energy technologies and environmental monitoring equipment. They can also contribute to the development of semiconductor components and other advanced materials on which emerging industries increasingly depend.
Yet the commercial value of these possibilities will depend less on the novelty of individual discoveries than on the ability to manufacture reliable products at an acceptable cost.
India has spent nearly two decades building a research base in nanoscience. The government launched its Nano Mission in 2007, subsequently developing the programme through different phases before reorganising its work under the Department of Science and Technology’s Nano & Advanced Materials Division in 2024.
The next phase requires a shift in emphasis: from expanding scientific activity to improving the conversion of research into intellectual property, prototypes, start-ups and commercially sustainable manufacturing.
Healthcare illustrates both the opportunity and the difficulty. Nanomaterials can be engineered to interact with biological molecules, supporting the development of diagnostic devices and systems for delivering drugs. Portable sensors capable of analysing samples close to where patients live could eventually make certain forms of testing more accessible, particularly in areas with limited medical infrastructure.
But a promising sensor developed in a laboratory is not necessarily a reliable medical test. Accuracy, reproducibility, safety and clinical usefulness must be established through appropriate validation and regulatory processes. A technology that performs well under controlled experimental conditions may encounter very different challenges in routine clinical use.
A 2026 review of nanomedicine proposals received by the Indian Council of Medical Research reported that more than 250 projects had been funded between 2018 and 2022, with substantial research activity in cancer, infectious diseases and diagnostics. The review also identified persistent difficulties in clinical translation, long-term safety research and the development of marketable products.
The lesson is not that India lacks scientific activity. It is that research funding alone cannot guarantee technological adoption.
Artificial intelligence could help narrow the gap between scientific discovery and practical application. Researchers investigating new materials may face enormous numbers of possible compositions, structures and combinations. Machine-learning systems can screen these possibilities, predict material properties, and identify candidates worth testing.
This could reduce the time and resources required to discover useful materials. It could also make research more targeted by allowing scientists to concentrate experimental work on the most promising options.
The 2026 Bengaluru INDIA NANO programme placed artificial intelligence and machine learning alongside advanced semiconductor manufacturing and materials engineering, reflecting the growing convergence of these fields.
Nevertheless, computational predictions remain hypotheses until verified experimentally. Materials must still be fabricated, their properties measured and their performance tested. Where medical applications are concerned, safety and clinical efficacy require additional scrutiny.
AI can make the search more efficient; it cannot eliminate the need for rigorous science. Nor does a faster discovery process necessarily solve the problems of manufacturing, investment or market adoption.
The convergence of nanotechnology with other strategic technologies could prove particularly important for India.
Semiconductor manufacturing depends on precise control of materials and structures at extremely small scales. India already has a significant presence in chip design, even as it seeks to expand its wider semiconductor capabilities.
A March 2026 government release said India hosted about 7 per cent of the world’s semiconductor-domain global capability centres and employed nearly 20 per cent of the global semiconductor chip-design workforce. It also highlighted research supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology through microelectronics and nanoelectronics centres at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru and the Indian Institutes of Technology.
Their work covers areas including sensors, microelectromechanical systems, compound semiconductors and photovoltaics.
These capabilities could support India’s ambitions in electronics, provided research strengths are matched by the infrastructure, skills, capital and industrial partnerships needed to move towards manufacturing. Expertise in chip design is valuable, but it is not a substitute for the ability to produce advanced components at scale.
Quantum technology offers another area of convergence. Although nanoscience and quantum technology are distinct disciplines, they increasingly intersect in quantum materials, nanoscale devices and sensing systems. India’s National Quantum Mission, approved in 2023 with an allocation of Rs 6,003.65 crore through 2030–31, seeks to develop capabilities in quantum computing, communications and sensing.
Such programmes underscore a wider industrial reality: the technologies likely to shape future competitiveness will not develop in isolation. Progress will depend on collaboration across disciplines and on the capacity to translate discoveries into usable systems.
For India’s nanotechnology ambitions, commercialisation may be the most consequential challenge.
Science-based businesses face obstacles that differ from those confronting many software start-ups. They often need specialised laboratories, expensive equipment, fabrication facilities and repeated rounds of testing before a product is ready for market. Development cycles can be long, while technical and regulatory risks make returns difficult to predict.
This creates a need for patient capital, shared infrastructure and funding mechanisms designed to support technologies through successive stages of development, rather than concentrating resources on early research or established businesses.
The Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru has proposed INFIfab, a deep-technology translation and prototyping facility described by its Centre for Nano Science and Engineering as India’s first Microfabrication Translation Centre. The initiative is intended to help move technologies towards prototyping and support national programmes in semiconductors, quantum technology, supercomputing and AI.
Facilities of this kind can address a practical bottleneck. Researchers may have a promising material or device but lack access to the machinery and technical expertise needed to produce a working prototype. Shared fabrication and testing infrastructure can lower that barrier, allowing more ideas to be evaluated before substantial manufacturing investment is committed.
Infrastructure alone, however, will not be enough. Universities and businesses need to collaborate earlier in the research process. Researchers require stronger support for intellectual-property protection and technology transfer. Promising projects need financing that carries them beyond the laboratory, while start-ups must be able to access specialised equipment without bearing its full cost.
Healthcare innovations also need clear pathways for validation and regulatory approval. And affordability must be considered from the outset, rather than treated as an afterthought once a sophisticated product has been developed.
That last point is particularly important in India. A diagnostic device that is technically impressive but too expensive for widespread use may have limited public-health value. The same principle applies to technologies intended to improve water management, environmental monitoring, agriculture and energy efficiency.
India does not face a choice between supporting basic science and pursuing commercial applications. Strong fundamental research is essential to technological progress. But its economic and social returns are likely to be greater when institutions exist to connect discoveries with industrial needs.
The country’s progress in nanotechnology should therefore be assessed not simply through research papers, conference participation or the number of projects funded. More meaningful measures would include the technologies that reach validated prototypes, the intellectual property that is commercialised, the businesses that achieve sustainable production and the products that find real users.
There are no guarantees that every promising discovery will become a successful business. Many will fail, as they do in other areas of advanced technology. The objective should be to create a system in which good ideas have a credible route to testing, financing, manufacturing and adoption.
Nanotechnology operates on a scale invisible to the human eye. Its economic significance will become visible only when the scientific advances made in India’s laboratories translate into better medical diagnostics, more capable electronic devices, improved industrial processes and affordable solutions to practical problems.
The decisive question is no longer simply what India can discover at the nanoscale. It is what the country can build from those discoveries.
(The writer holds expertise in biotechnology, biomedical research and healthcare innovation. The views are personal.)
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