In
2001, India was in the tenth position in terms of nanotechnology publications worldwide. Ten years later i.e. 2011, India had
become the sixth largest country in terms of nanotechnology publications, after
the USA, China, Japan, Germany and South Korea, respectively. However, if we
look at values for China on this indicator in 2011, the number of nanoscience
and nanotechnology related publications of China is 6% higher than that of the
USA. It is evident that China is the only country in the world of which the publication’s
percentage share shows exponential growth, while India’s growth trend was
significant as well. Japan, Germany and France were relatively stable. India’s
output showed an increase during the period 2001-2011 as an effect of the
Government of India’s (GOI) “Nanoscience and Technology Initiative (NSTI,
allocated Rs. 60 crores)” in 2001 and “Nano Mission”, implemented by the
Department of Science and Technology (DST) during the XIth Five Year
Plan (2007-2012) with the budget allocation of Rs. 1000 crores. In addition to
“Nano Mission”, there are also several Central Government departments or
organizations such as Department of
Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY, Rs. 500 Cr, during
2004-2011), Department of Biotechnology (DBT, Rs. 100 Cr till 2011), Defence
Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Department of Space (DOS),
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR), the Ministry of Human
Resource Development (MHRD),
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) that have supported nanoscience and nanotechnology
research programs in their respective areas.
Global
nanotechnology scientific publications have exhibited exponential growth for
more than a decade. The most rapid growth over the period has come from East
Asian countries, notably China, Japan, South Korea and India. USA
remains the world's largest
country in aggregate nanotechnology research publications during the 2001-2012
time frame, followed by China and Japan. All of
the top ten countries in this domain have increased publication from 2001 to
2012, but the average growth rate in research has not been uniform globally.
USA and China lead the world in nanotechnology research publications, whereas
India has increased published research output by a ten-fold since 2001.
