It maybe a device with full Turing-test interactivity which is capable of fulfilling our wish or would be an interlacing dense layer of memory around a shifting model of existential realty, and covered with a matrix of desire. It is not easy to imagine the consequences of a speeding technology. (Crandall, 135) Anyway, nanotechnology is not a solution for all problems. (Schick, 46) 2. Commercialization of Nanotechnology- Global Nanotechnology Market, Funding-Government vs. Venture Capitalists-(USA, JAPAN, EU)

Fresh sources of funding from venture capitalists and daring governments and strong competition, has brought about the formula for a big upheaval from a very small technology. (Uldrich, 13) U.S. funding for nanotech is as high as about $600m; in Japan the expenditure has leapt to $750m; and the EU has assured 1bn pound sterling in the 2004 financial year. National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA and the departments of Energy, Health and Defense, fund Nanotech initiatives in the U.S. (Schick, 46) Though the universities and corporations have only lately invested in this new field, so far the results have been spectacular. (Jones, 74) One venture capital-VC fund is the Seraphima Ventures that is targeted to raise about $100 million for worldwide investment in starting up companies on nanotechnology. It funded about U.S.$38 Million to Nanosys and about U.S.$22 million to Nanostream during 2003. The $17.5 million series B. round was advanced to Zetacore led by Klener Perkins Caulfield and Byer and Us $30 million series B. round was advanced to Molecular Imprints just prior to the end of the year 2003. (Seraphima Ventures)

It appears improbable that individual companies will start strongly building these molecular computers or mining into nanotechnology's other potential uses. We are in the midst of a scientific breakthrough. Though we are aware that the technology is plausible and promising, we are yet to advance sufficiently for private industry to pledge money to more than periodic or focused research. Consequently, companies most probably appear to encourage niche research. Examples are: Nanophase, the company manufacturing sunscreen, is researching nanocrystals; Hewlett Packard is investigating how nanotechnology can enhance computer memory. Hence, funding for research into the huge issues appears more likely to come from public sources. In order to advance further, it is required to share information incessantly, which may not happen from companies eager to patent the eventual technique. Actually, governments mostly fund whatever important advancements made so far in the research. For instance, James Tour and Mark Reed accomplished much of their research into molecular computing with assistance from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - DARPA. Thus, strong government participation in nanotechnology is more than a realistic compulsion from a research and national defense point-of-view. It is close to turning into a moral necessity. (Thompson, 6)

United States has a global dominance in the field of research activities, centers and the companies associated with the nano science and technology sector with more than 400 home companies presently involved in this area. The funding of nano technology research in U.S. has geared up during the period from 1997 to 2004 which is seen as an increment from U.S. $115 million to U.S. $849 million, as per QunetiQ Nanomaterials, irrespective of the fact that the signing of 'The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act' by Congress on 3rd December, 2003 authorized to generate U.S. $3.4 billion during the following four years. Many research networks have been instituted in the U.S., that involves the NSF-funded National Nanofabrication Users Network, established during 1996. (Crandall, 136) Nanotechnology in packaging) the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative- NNI was generated in FY 2001 to back the secular nanoscale research and development giving rise to the prospective burst through in respective fields like materials and manufacturing, nano-electronics, medicine and healthcare, environment and energy, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, biotechnology and agriculture, computation and information technology and national security. (Tracking Commercial Applications in Nanotechnology)

Most of them regard the influence of the nanotechnology on the national and international economy and on the health and welfare of people to be at least as significant as the collective impact of microelectronics, medical imaging, computer-aided engineering, and man made polymers generated during the last century. The federal research for the NNI is performed in DOC, DOD, DOE and NIH laboratories and in the university firms by means of research grants and contracts. The functioning of initiative is regulated by the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office-NNCO and the NSTC Subcommittees on Nanoscale...

The NNI is regarded as a major enterprise entailing FY' 2003 budget request in addition of $700 million and management team constituted from 16 federal departments, institutes and agencies. In several instances such activities are making the initiatives easier in the research of completely new fields; in others, new tools are being applied to the traditional research subjects. The programs comparable in supporting to the NNI have been instituted in Europe and Asia and the NNI has already entered into collaborations with the European Union. The regional nanotechnology initiative exceeding 40 in numbers have been launched in U.S. alone in 21 States. (Tracking Commercial Applications in Nanotechnology)
In the field of commercialization, research and development of nanotechnology Japan is considered to be next only to the U.S. within the decade of its initiatives during 2001 in the field through the ¥25 billion Ministry for International Trade and Industry - MITI program on atom manipulation. With the inception of the Fourth Framework Program - FP4 that continued from 1994 to 1998, the EU funding of the nanotechnology projects have been initiated. The funding is also extended under FP5 and was significantly enhanced with prioritization of 'nanotechnologies and nanoscience, knowledge-based multifunctional materials and new production processes and devices' became a priority under FP6 and was apparently provided €e1.3 billion for the projects funded during 2003-06. The Pira International has a great role in the four-year EU sustainability project that was initiated during the first phase of 2004. (Nanotechnology in packaging)

The project aimed at generating complex multifunctional packaging materials with the application of nanotechnology. The group generating the initiatives consists of 15 research institutes, incorporating Pira, ten of the universities and eight industrial organs involving Kappa Packaging, Smurfit and Stora Enso. There is a growing attention towards nanotechnology that is evidenced by the reaction that the Commission entailed its first FP6 call for proposals. About 1000 proposals were put forth entailing the collaborative response for nanotechnology and material production processes and devices. The total funds proposed in this respect were e7.5 billion. There is considerable growth in funding of the nanotechnology research in Europe recorded to be from U.S.$125 million in 1997 to U.S.$300 million in 2002 and is still progressing in 2005. (Nanotechnology in packaging)

3. Commercial Applications of Nanotechnology

The application of the nanoscience in the field of medical sciences is considered to have great prospects entailing several potential advantages to the humanity. Some field of nanoscience has the objective of getting lessons from the biological nanosystems while others are concentrating on the assimilation of the organic and inorganic at the nanoscale. Research is going on to explore the possibility of its application in several other applications. The implants and prosthetics are considered the pioneering fields in this series. The emergence of new materials and the efficacies of nanotechnologies and biotechnologies made it possible to generate artificial organs and implants that are equivalent to the original through the growth of cells on artificial or biosynthetic coatings that enhances the biocompatibility and decline the rejection. This may involve the retinal, cochlear and neural implants, repair of the damaged nerve cells and substitute of corrupted skin, tissue or bone. (Commercial Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine and Health)

The second filed of its application is diagnostics. Inherent to the MEMS - the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, laboratory on a chip technology for quicker diagnosis that entails less of the sample is being devised in combination with micro-fuidics. It is anticipated that the common personal health monitors may also be developed with its application. The development in both genomics and nanotechnology are prone to energize the sensors that resolve the genetic make-up quickly and precisely, increasing the knowledge of the predisposition of the people to genetic related diseases. Lastly, the drug delivery system will exploit the development of nanotechnology. With nano particles the drugs may effectively be accorded better solubility giving rise to better absorption. Moreover, the drugs are to contain within a molecular carrier, either for its protection from stomach acids or to regulate the release of the drug to a particular targeted area declining the side-effects. Clinical or pre-clinical trials on such drugs have already been initiated as per the stringent regulatory essentialities for new pharmaceuticals. The cost of generation as a result of this are sometimes high and the consequences of research often are quite confined. (Commercial Applications of Nanotechnology…