Exploring the Influence of International Sub-Political Sites on Nanotechnology Regulation in India

The nanotechnology regulatory regime in India, in concomitance with the technology itself, is fast emerging and is marked by new discoveries and their applications across disciplinary fields. Although both are emerging, this dynamism is not a two-way phenomenon; the technological developments are ahead of the regulatory regime, with the latter reacting to the former. The reactive nature of the regime corresponds to a number of political, sub-political and apolitical factors, both national and international; which makes the regulation often disjointed and fragmented in nature. There has been a growing trend towards the acceptability of international forums/institutions as efficient and effective sites of regime creation. These sites are characteristically sub-political in nature in as much as they lack effective legitimacy and formal rule making power. The International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) are two such sites, identified in this paper