Nanotechnology for Novel Solutions in Medicine and Ethics in India Dr.S.Mokkapati ICMR,New Delhi

1. Nanotechnology for Novel Solutions in Medicineand Ethics in IndiaDr.S.MokkapatiICMR,New Delhi Welcome swagatam

4. United NationsMillennium Development Goals • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • Achieve universal primary education • Promote gender equality and empower women • Reduce child mortality • Improve maternal health • Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria, and other diseases • Ensure environmental sustainability • Develop a global partnership for development

19. Lotus leaf mythology • naliniidalagata jalamatitaralaMtadvajjiivitamatishayachapalam .viddhi vyaadhyabhimaanagrastaMlokaM shokahataM cha samastam .. (4) • The life of a man is as uncertain as rain drops trembling on a lotus leaf. Know that the whole world remains a prey to disease, ego and grief.

22. Ancient Hindus unknowingly employed nanotechnology in the manufacture of swords, other weapons and paintings. This was indicated by Nobel Laureate (chemistry) Robert Curl Jr at the 95th Indian Science Congress in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

23. Our ancestors have been unwittingly using the technology for over 2,000 years and carbon nano for about 500 years. Carbon nanotechnology is much older than carbon nanoscience,’ said Curl (the Hindu)

24. Nobel Laureate (chemistry) Robert Curl Jr told an enchanted audience at the 95th Indian Science Congress here about how Damascus steel was first made by experts in south and south-central India as long ago as around 300 BC. (the New Indian Express)

25. The swords produced by ancient Hindu blacksmiths were known to retain its sharp edge and toughness. Such high quality swords were the result of the composition of carbon in it.

26. The raw material used by ancient Indians was wootz steel – a high grade steel first made in ancient South India. After burning away the impurities in the iron ore, important ingredients including a high carbon content of nearly 1.5 per cent was added to produce wootz steel. • A similar method was employed in Ajanta paintings

36. Nanotechnologies are said to offer great promise for medicine, but much of this lies in the future. In the largely exploratory and discovery phase, ethical and social assessment is necessarily preliminary. This future orientation has also made nanotechnologies vulnerable to the current zeitgeist of overclaiming in science, either for potential benefits or harms. Perhaps the first ethical issue is the frequent use of the word “will” about future outcomes which the writer cannot know. This sometimes seems to express an ‘article of faith’ about science which would present a problem if it generated a false impression of inevitability of future developments. Equally there is a need to be careful about placing premature weight on speculative concerns about nanotechnologies raised ahead of evidence. This short paper is broad in its scope. Nanomedicine touches upon many issues already familiar in bioethics, and also some more particular questions. Before considering these, a more basic contextual question should be considered.

37. Free, curiosity-driven research. • Economic growth, jobs and competitiveness • Quality of life, variously defined – e.g. personal affluence, consumer choice, environmental goals, social justice, global health and poverty, spiritual goals • Compassion, motivated by the desire to alleviate human suffering. • Medical ‘success’ seeking a technical solution to any condition, as an obligation • Different religious belief systems. • Transhumanism, driving human evolution by physically changing humans.

38. there are particular features of nanomedicine to consider. The reductionism that opens powerful therapeutic possibilities can also create potential for powerful harms, if the precision becomes wrongly applied or if it has more than just the desired effect. Small things may mislead by telling an incomplete story. The ability to intervene at a cellular or molecular level may fall foul of the complexity of the system. For example, nanomedicine may enable rapid read-outs of our whole genome or of our body's levels of everything imaginable, but what does all that information mean? What now is a well person, when we have so much unsuspected data about our bodies? This raises familiar issues about genetic information, but also how such extensive and possibly distressing information is handled. Going to the doctor for the right antibiotic for a chest infection may result in discovering a susceptibility to breast cancer.

43. 10,000 years ago…………..“Let Knowledge come from all sides”-Rig Veda Segmentation of knowledge leads to divisiveness Let knowledge be harnessed to uplift the blossoms in the dust too

44. Information products Industrial products Raw Materials Agri products Industrial Society Agricultural Society Information Society Knowledge Society Innovation Knowledge products Networks Economic Growth Technology Societal Transformation

45. What is a Knowledge Society ? • That uses knowledge holistically to empower and enrich people– and is an integral driver of sustainable development (societal transformation) • A life-long learning society committed to innovation • Has the capacity to generate, diffuse, utilize and protect knowledge - creates economic wealth and social equity • Enlightens people towards an integrated view of life as a fusion of mind, body and spirit Planning Commission Report, India 2001

46. Investment Driven R&D Regime “When R & D investments begins to exceed capital investment, the corporation can be said to be shifting from a place for production to a place for knowledge creation” Genomics But, 80 countries are classified as scientifically lagging and have no capital Nanotechnology RAND S & T Report 2001

47. 21st century will be the century of knowledge The Dawn of Knowledge Era

48. What is a Knowledge Society ? • That uses knowledge holistically to empower and enrich people– and is an integral driver of sustainable development (societal transformation) • A life-long learning society committed to innovation • Has the capacity to generate, diffuse, utilize and protect knowledge - creates economic wealth and social equity • Enlightens people towards an integrated view of life as a fusion of mind, body and spirit Planning Commission Report, India 2001

49. Bio-, Nano-, Info-, Cogno- Convergence