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An Overview of the Impact of Nanotechnology on Economy and Business

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Biological Applications of Nanoparticles

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Abstract

Nanotechnology has become one of the pillars of modern scientific research. The evolution of nano-based products and nanomaterials in the past few years has immensely benefited the entire economy and society. Over the last two decades, we have observed a steady increase in the number of industries producing nano-based products and the number of countries promoting nanotechnology. This chapter highlights this commercialization aspect of nanoscience. We have found a continuous increase in the number of patents registered under nanotechnology worldwide between 2000 and 2020. More importantly, the ratio of nanotechnology to nominal GDP has increased significantly, suggesting that the contribution of nanotechnology to World GDP has increased. Nanotechnology has also played a key role in new job creation. This chapter also points out a few negative aspects of nanoscience from the socioeconomic perspective.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As an illustration, imagine that a national government passes a $1 billion fiscal stimulus. It is assumed that the consumers’ marginal willingness to consume is 0.75. The initial $1 billion in stimulus spending will result in consumers saving $250 million and spending $750 million, thereby starting a second, lesser round of the stimulus. That $750 million will be spent by the recipients, who will then spend $562.5 million, or 75% of the $750 million, and so on.

  2. 2.

    Nominal GDP values are taken from the World Bank Data set: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2021&start=2001&view=chart

  3. 3.

    Percentage figures of this paragraph are calculated by the authors from the data available at Statnano website.

  4. 4.

    Law of diminishing returns or principal of diminishing marginal productivity, is an economic principle which states that the incremental contribution of an additional unit of input/factor of production to output gradually decreases as we use more and more of that factor holding the other factors of production fixed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Management, Indore, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay, Hari Charan Dorbala & Sudipta Mandal

Authors
  1. Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay
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  2. Hari Charan Dorbala
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  3. Sudipta Mandal
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Correspondence to Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Biplab Sarkar

  2. Department of Biosciences and Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Avinash Sonawane

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Bandyopadhyay, S., Dorbala, H.C., Mandal, S. (2023). An Overview of the Impact of Nanotechnology on Economy and Business. In: Sarkar, B., Sonawane, A. (eds) Biological Applications of Nanoparticles. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3629-8_12

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