Nanotechnology is a very relevant area of science for India which has been providing promising answers to a large number of problems in health, engineering, new materials, environment and medicine, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said. He said this after inaugurating an interactive meeting of scientists and delegates on the second day of the threeday Indo-German conference on Laser Applications and Nanoscience here on Friday. Lasers and nano materials are proving to be of immense significance in the healthcare sector, he said. “Various types of lasers are extensively and successfully used in medical diagnosis, surgical and non-surgical therapy,’’ Chandy said. The scientific contacts established individually and institutionally between the two countries will benefit both countries and society as a whole, the Chief Minister added. The conference, which concludes on Saturday, is being organised by the German Research Foundat ion (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG) in collaboration with the Srinivasa Ramanujan Institute for Basic Sciences, under the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), the Goethe Zentrum and The Humboldt Club here. KSCSTE executive vice-president V N Rajasekharan Pillai said talks are on with German research institutions on the possibility of collaborative projects in three key areas - biodiversity and climate change; Ayurveda and traditional knowledge in Kerala; and Nano Materials and Nano Medicine. He said research in Kerala has seen a paradigm shift in the last three years and the state has extended its long list of scientific and R&D institutions. This includes the State Innovation Council and SRIBS, which is a capacity-building initiative for science students and teachers. The Chief Minister was presented with the first copy of a special edition of the Asian Journal of Physics by the editor-in-chief of the journal, V K Rastogi.