Following a report by a task force that concluded that the gap between the demand and domestic supply of electronics hardware is likely to increase from US$ 83 billion in 2014 to US$ 296 billion by 2020, the Government of India has made an effort to play catch up through the field of nanoelectronics. It has opened two incubation Centres of Excellence (CEN), one at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and the other at IIT-Bombay, with a budget of Rs 4000 million. Its aim is to help India leapfrog into the domain of nanoelectronics.
The two CENs are largely funded by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) to train people in nanotechnology, develop new technologies and commercialise them. Currently, this industry is in its nascent stage in India, primarily geared to making low end products like nano-powders that go into coating textiles or hard materials. There is a need for a large number of startups that could take up the manufacture of small parts and ready them for bigger systems or devices.