Nanotechnology: Uses in medicine, agriculture and products

Statements 1 and 3 are correct. The Nano Mission (Mission on Nano Science and Technology) was approved by the Union Cabinet on 3 May 2007 as an umbrella capacity- building programme with an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for five years. Its objectives include promoting basic research, building research infrastructure, developing nano applications and technologies, human-resource development and international collaboration; early application areas named at launch included safe drinking water, materials, sensors and drug delivery. It grew out of the Nano Science and Technology Initiative (NSTI) started in 2001 under the Department of Science and Technology. Statement 2 is wrong: the nodal agency is the Department of Science and Technology (DST), not the Department of Biotechnology. The mission is steered by a Nano Mission Council, chaired for many years by Prof. C. N. R. Rao, and the Cabinet later approved its continuation in the Twelfth Plan.

Two statements are correct. Nanoparticles are not only a product of modern laboratories. Natural sources such as volcanic ash, smoke from forest fires, sea-spray aerosols, desert dust and the weathering of minerals have always released nanoscale particles, as the 2019 Science review by Hochella and colleagues and the US EPA's guidance describe. A second class is incidental nanoparticles, formed unintentionally as by-products of human activity: diesel and petrol exhaust, coal combustion, welding and cooking fumes. A third class is engineered nanoparticles, made deliberately for products such as sunscreens, paints and textiles. Statement 3 is wrong: the long existence of natural nanoparticles does not make engineered ones harmless. Their composition, coatings, quantities and release points differ, and nanoparticles from consumer products can accumulate in water and soil and enter food chains, which is why their environmental fate is studied and regulated.

All three statements are correct. INST Mohali is an autonomous society of the Department of Science and Technology set up under the Nano Mission; it began functioning on 3 January 2013 and later moved to its own campus in Sector 81, Knowledge City, Mohali. CeNS Bengaluru began in 1991 as the Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, founded by the physicist Prof. S. Chandrasekhar (a liquid-crystal pioneer, not to be confused with the astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar); it came under DST in 2003 and was renamed the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences in 2014. The Centres of Excellence in Nanoelectronics at IIT Bombay and IISc were set up in 2006 with support from the then Ministry of Communications and IT (now MeitY), and the INUP, launched in August 2008, lets students and faculty from other colleges use these clean rooms and receive training, a model later widened as INUP-i2i to more centres.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct. Released by the Department of Biotechnology (announced by PIB on 7 July 2020), the nano agri-food guidelines set out what data are needed to judge the quality, safety and efficacy of nano-based agri-inputs (NAIPs such as nanofertilisers, nanopesticides and nano-growth promoters), nano-agri products (NAPs, including food and feed), and nanocomposites and sensors used in direct contact with crops, food or feed. They specify characterisation, stability, toxicity and environmental-fate studies. Because India's existing laws have no specific nano provisions, the guidelines are designed to help the regulators who already decide on such products, namely the CIB&RC (pesticides), the authorities under the Fertiliser (Control) Order, FSSAI and BIS. Statement 2 is wrong: the guidelines expressly do not apply to conventional products that contain incidental or naturally occurring nanomaterials; they target products that are deliberately made with nanomaterials.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. The landmark 2005 review by Günter Oberdörster and colleagues, which named nanotoxicology as an emerging discipline, notes that about half of inhaled 20-nm particles deposit in the alveolar region, deeper than most larger particles reach. Once there, nanoparticles can escape normal clearance by macrophages, enter cells and the bloodstream and travel to distant organs; some can even move along the olfactory nerve towards the brain. A major mechanism of harm is the generation of reactive oxygen species, leading to oxidative stress, inflammation and damage to proteins, membranes and DNA; the large surface area per unit mass makes nanoparticles more reactive than the same mass of coarse particles. Statement 3 is wrong: smallness often makes particles harder, not easier, to clear, and greater surface reactivity can raise hazard. These concerns about free radicals and accumulation in the environment are the same ones UPSC tested in 2014.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. E171 is a white pigment of titanium dioxide particles, a fraction of which is in the nanoscale, used to whiten sweets, icings and sauces. On 6 May 2021 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced that E171 'can no longer be considered safe when used as a food additive', mainly because, after reviewing the evidence including the nanoparticle fraction, it could not exclude genotoxicity, so no safe daily intake could be set. The European Commission then adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/63, which entered into force on 7 February 2022 with a six-month transition, after which, from 7 August 2022, E171 could no longer be added to foods in the EU. Statement 3 is wrong: the IARC (Monographs volume 93) places titanium dioxide in Group 2B, 'possibly carcinogenic to humans', based mainly on animal inhalation studies, not in Group 1.

All four statements are correct. ISO/TC 229 'Nanotechnologies' was created in 2005 and develops standards on terminology (the ISO 80004 vocabulary series), measurement and characterisation, health, safety and environment, and material specifications; it marked twenty years in 2025. In the EU, Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/1881 amended the annexes of REACH so that registrants must give specific information on nanoforms (size distribution, shape, surface chemistry and their safety data); these rules apply from 1 January 2020. The OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) was established in 2006 to test and assess the safety of representative manufactured nanomaterials and adapt test guidelines. In the United States, President George W. Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act on 3 December 2003, giving statutory backing to the National Nanotechnology Initiative launched in 2000. Together these show that standardisation, chemical regulation and research funding developed on parallel tracks.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct. On 24 October 2019 the government released the Guidelines for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India, drawn up by the Department of Biotechnology, the ICMR and the CDSCO. They aim to give regulators and industry a common basis for assessing the quality, safety and efficacy of drugs in which a nanomaterial is the active ingredient or the carrier, covering characterisation (size, surface charge, drug release), stability, preclinical toxicology and clinical studies. They are framed to work together with the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019, and with international guidance such as that of the ICH, rather than to replace the Drugs and Cosmetics Act framework. Statement 2 is wrong: the document states that it applies to nanopharmaceuticals, both finished formulations and active ingredients, and does not cover cosmetics or nano-based medical devices and implants, which fall under separate rules.

Both are correct (c). Nanoparticles such as liposomes, dendrimers and gold particles can carry drugs straight to diseased cells like tumours, sparing healthy tissue (1). They also act as non-viral carriers of genes in gene therapy (2).

The lipid nanoparticles used in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines apply the same idea, wrapping fragile genetic material to carry it into cells. Nano-based diagnostics can also detect diseases earlier. Notice how a physics idea, the special behaviour of matter at the nanoscale, is reshaping medicine, though safety and toxicity questions remain.

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