Nanotechnology in India and Rajasthan

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced. In its original sense, 'nanotechnology' refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. The concepts that seeded nanotechnology were first discussed in 1959 by renowned physicist Richard Feynman in his talk There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, in which he described the possibility of synthesis via direct manipulation of atoms. The term "nano-technology" was first used by Norio Taniguchi in 1974, though it was not widely known. Inspired by Feynman's concepts, K. Eric Drexler independently used the term "nanotechnology" in his 1986 book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, which proposed the idea of a nanoscale "assembler" which would be able to build a copy of itself and of other items of arbitrary complexity with atomic control.

Nanometer as a Unit in Nanotechnology: In order to understand the unusual world of nanotechnology, we need to get an idea of the units of measure involved. A centimeter is one-hundredth of a meter, a millimeter is one-thousandth of a meter, and a micrometer is one-millionth of a meter, but all of these are still huge compared to the nanoscale. A nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, smaller than the wavelength of visible light and a hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair. As small as a nanometer is, it's still large compared to the atomic scale. An atom has a diameter of about 0.1 nm. 

Nanotechnology in India: IIT Bombay is one of the leading institutions in the country for research in the area of Nanotechnology. IIT Bombay has recently consolidated its Nanotechnology research activities through the formation of a Centre for Research in Nanotechnology & Science (CRNTS). The formation of this centre has been made possible through a generous grant from the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India  At IIT Bombay, over 45 faculty members from 9 different departments/schools are working together in the broad areas of Nanotechnology, with support from various government agencies are private industries. This research has resulted in over 400 high quality publications in the last 5 years in international journals and conference proceedings and a large number of patents. Some of the research activities at IIT Bombay in the Nanotechnology area are on par with some of the best institutions in the world. Because of its efforts, IIT Bombay has recently received substantial funding from the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt of India for the formation of a Centre for Research in Nanotechnology & Science (CRNTS) on the IIT Bombay campus. Additionally, IIT Bombay has also been selected as one of the two institutions in the country for setting up a 'Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics' by the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT), Govt of India.

Nanotechnology in Rajasthan: Rajasthan University's Centre for Converging Technologies (CCT) is conceptualized as a centre to strengthen quality education and to pursue high standard research in the frontier areas of Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Information & Communication Technology and Cognitive & Neuroscience (NBIC) technologies so as to accelerate techno-economic development of the country apart from some individual research works in NIT/IIT Rajasthan. The primary aim of establishing the Centre for Converging Technologies (CCT) is to produce high quality research in the four streams of Nanotechnology, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Information and Communication Technology, Cognitive & Neuroscience. The focus will be on the following areas.
Nanotechnology
Biotechnology and Bioinformatics
Information and Communication Technology
Cognitive and Neuroscience