China and India: The two new players in the nanotechnology race

Nanotechnology is promising to be the ‘transformative’ technology of the 21st century with its boundless potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries. Stakes are high as projected estimate of market value and economic and social benefits are immense for countries that can attain competency in this technology. This has stimulated OECD countries as well as emerging economies to channel huge resources for developing core capabilities in this technology. Unlike, other key technologies, recent influential reports highlight China in particular and to some extent India, Brazil and other emerging economies competing with advanced OECD countries in ‘nanotechnology’. The present paper investigates through bibliometric and innovation indicators to what extent China and India have been able to assert their position in the global stage. The paper also underscores the importance of capturing indications from standards and products/processes along with publications and patents to capture more accurately the latent variable ‘performance’. Study shows that China’s progress is remarkable; it has already attained leading position in publications and standard development. India is making its presence more visible particularly in publications. China’s research is more sophisticated and addresses nano-materials and its applications whereas India’s research shows healthy trend towards addressing developmental problems.