The construction work for the Rs.1000 crore Indian Institute of Nano Science & Technology has commenced in Bangalore. The major project in the nanotechnology field in the country is expected to give the much-needed boost to the research and product development initiatives in the state.
The funding of Rs.1,000 crore was released under the Nano Mission for which the government of Karnataka has already allocated 14 acres on Tumkur Road for locating the institute. Institute was conceived and the government of India in principle chipped in Rs.250 crore in 2007 during the first Bangalore Nano Conference pioneered by Prof. CNR Rao, Linus Pauling Research Professor; chairman, Vision Group on Science & Technology and Vision Group on Nanotechnology, Government of Karnataka.
Over the last 5 years, the major development has been the commencement of the Institute’s construction. Now the state government has called for Prof Rao’s intervention in moving the Department of Science & Technology (DST) to hasten the development work, said the Karnataka Minister for Science & Technology and Fisheries, Anand Vasant Asnotikar at the inauguration of the two-day 4th Bangalore conference being held now.
The Park will take a period of three years to be commissioned. It will have a full-fledged institute that will focus on research and training.
From the initiatives driven by the Karnataka government, minister also said that the state proposes to establish a state-of-the-art Nano Park near the Bangalore International Airport. It will have a Nano Incubation Centre, Science and Technology- based Business Incubator to support early state entrepreneurial ventures along with the physical infrastructure and support systems that are necessary for business incubation centre. There will also be a Nanotechnology Industrial Cluster with world class facilities besides Centres of Excellence for Nanotech professional education to develop domain expertise. The Expression of Interest has already been called for the development of the Nano Park on a Public Private Partnership mode.
The project in terms of infrastructure development and the educational support will provide the big boost for the nanotechnology industry, said the Minister Asnotikar.
Although Nanotechnology initiatives have taken off in the country at research institutes and academia engaged in concrete efforts along with commercialization of the technology to a certain extent by the industry, Karnataka has been short-listed for the Nano Park because of the projects by the research centres in the State like Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, said MN Vidyashankar, secretary, department of biotechnology and Science and technology, Karnataka.
The state government will look at providing a separate budgetary allocation for the nanotechnology initiatives during the forth coming budget of 2012-13.