PB Jhala is a Mechanical Engineer and an alumnus of Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar. He has spent 38 years in R&D in Textile Engineering at the famous Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association (ATIRA) from where he retired as Senior Deputy Director. He has made notable contributions to the development of Textile Machinery, Automation and Control, Information Technology and Nanotechnology Applications in Textiles ete He has published and/or presented more than 100 papers in National and International Conferences. He holds 20 Indian Patents on Textile Mechanisms and Automation. He was awarded British Council Bursary for training at the University of Leeds, UK in the year 1976. Thereafter, he received four National Awards for his contributions in textile machinery. Widely traveled and experienced, PB Jhala has also served as an expert member on several committees of Govt. of India Departments namely DIT, DST, DSIR, TIFAC, and NRDC besides with the UN agencies viz. APCTT and UNDP etc. He acted as Resource Person from India in International Seminar and Expert Group Meeting on Garment Industry at China in 2001.He was specially invited by Ningbo International Science and Technology Exchange Centre, China to give a Keynote Address at the Conference on Industry's Economy Information in the Asia-Pacific at Ningbo in 2002. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India) and an Honorary Fellow of the Textile Associations (India). He is the present incumbent of the John Bissell Research Chair sponsored by Ford Foundation at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and is engaged in cutting edge design-led research in Nanotechnology and Plasma Technology Applications in Textile and Apparel for product innovation and value addition.

Nanotechnology is a buzzword of the present century that magnifies the power of 'small'; a power that, if applied, can transform coal into diamonds by a mere re-arrangement of atoms. By enabling the execution of work at molecular level, it endows us with the ability to re-shuffle the building blocks of Nature to come up with objects with required precision, as approved by the laws of Physics.

Nanotechnology has made its impact felt in the Textile Industry by demonstrating its usefulness in the improvement and development of already existing materials of textiles, in turn generating extra revenue for the industry. With an aim to widen the scope of its application in the area of Textiles and Apparel, National Institute of Design (NID), supported by the Ford Foundation Grant, has established the John Bissell Research Chair. This initiative endeavours to enable this advanced technology to penetrate into the traditional craft sector, reviving its range of products and lending it a value edition. This booklet is a compendium of all the initiatives made towards the said aim, its outcome, and the basics explaining the whys and wherefores that surround the concept of Nanotechnology.

The work done under the umbrella of the first incumbent of the John Bissell Design Research Chair, Prof. P. B. Jhala, and his efforts to document this booklet, deserve to be appreciated. During his tenure he focused his research in the area of Plasma Treatment to Angora Wool and Nanotechnology Applications in Textiles and came up with concrete yet astonishing results. It is hoped that his research would serve as a fountainhead of information and knowledge to all and would be an asset to the Indian Textile and Apparel Industry.