Bioinformatics has become a frontline applied science and is of vital importance to study new biology, which is widely recognized as the new scientific endeavor of the twenty-first century. The growth in full genomic sequencing, structural genomics, proteomics, micro-array etc. will be very slow without application of bioinformatics. In fact usefulness of these areas to solve complex biological problems will be limited without bioinformatics and thus very high importance to Bioinformatics.

India was the first country in the world to establish in 1987 a Biotechnology Information System (BTIS) network to create an infrastructure that enables it to harness, biotechnology through the application of Bioinformatics. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has taken up this infrastructure development project and created a distributed network at a very low cost. BTIS is today recognized as one of the major scientific network in the world dedicated to provide the-state-of-the-art infrastructure, education, manpower and tools in bioinformatics.

The principal aim of the bioinformatics programme is to ensure that India emerges as a key international player in the field of bioinformatics; enabling a greater access to wealth of information created during the post-genomic era and catalyse the country’s attainment of lead position in medical, agricultural, animal and environmental biotechnology. India should create a niche in Bioinformatics industry and would work to create bioinformatics industry with turnover of US$ 5 billion by the end of 10th Plan period. It was felt that these could be achieved through a focussed approach in terms of information acquisition, storage, retrieval and distribution. The following are the major thrusts of the programme.

To undertake advanced research in frontier areas of bioinformatics and computational biology.

To develop world class human resource in bioinformatics

To establish effective academia-industry interface

To pursue and promote international cooperation with leading institutions, organizations and countries in the world.

To create world-class platforms for technology development, transfer and commercialisation.

Achievements
The bioinformatics programme during the period has made excellent progress in terms of disseminating the up to date information resources to the researchers and the development of various bioinformatic tools for biotechnology and molecular biology applications. 26 new bioinformatic centers were established as a part of BTISnet and with these the network went up to 61 centres spread all over the country. These centers are established at various Universities, ICAR, ICMR, CSIR, DBT, DST, DAE and other Central & State Govt. supported laboratories. These centres have been networked through satellite communication systems by installing the latest computer and communication infrastructure available in India. Two new Interactive computer graphics facilities were established one at Bose Institute, Kolkatta and the other at JNU, New Delhi to provide interactive molecular graphics support for the researchers. These centers are in addition to earlier established four centers of interactive graphics at University of Pune and Madurai, IISc, Bangalore, N.I.I. New Delhi. Mirror sites of several internationally recognized genomic databases such as EMBnet, PDB, GDB, EBI and Plant Genome databases were established in India under the National Jai Vigyan S & T mission.

One-year postgraduate diploma courses in Bioinformatics were implemented through MKU, University of Pune, Calcutta University, JNU and Pondicherry University. Thus five major reputed universities are running such long-term courses with the financial support from DBT. Over 150 training activities in bioinformatics were conducted to train the researchers to make use of bioinformatics resources for their research. In addition University of Pune has started M.Sc. Bioinformatics course from academic year 2002-2003 and admitted 20 students. High speed Local Area Network (LAN) was established in DBT connecting more than 150 nodes and providing full internet and other computational services to the entire Department.

The 16th International Conference of CODATA was organized in India made the Bioinformatics programme. To enhance awareness among the researchers about various training activities conducted by BTISnet centers, the Apex BTIC publishes Bioinformatics training Calendar every year. The services of both DBT & BTISnet are made available for the public by creating web sites on Internet. The scheme has made significant achievements through the sustained efforts of the DBT in close coordination with various organizations such as the NIC, DOE, DOT, ICAR, CSIR, UGC, MIT etc. A brief account of the important achievements is given below:

Emergence of a distributed network and database infrastructure in bioinformatics
To fulfill the growing need of modern biologists & biotechnology industry R & D, the BTISnet works as a distributed database and network organization to provide an integrated information resource on all aspects of Biotechnology. Molecular biology data such as Gene Bank, Nucleic Acids and Protein Sequences, etc., are accessible over the network from worldwide resources in molecular biology. Important amongst these resources are the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the National Agricultural Library (NAL), the ICGEB, Trieste Bioinformatics resources and several other resources on the INTERNET. The host institutes/ universities have also contributed significantly in the establishment of the Bioinformatics centres; many of them are operating from independent buildings accessible to a wide spread of users. The centres are equipped with sophisticated computers and communication infrastructures. More than 75% of the centres have absorbed the manpower positions sanctioned by DBT in order to retain the skilled personal on Bioinformatics.

Dissemination and usage of resources
BTIS resources are now being used by about 15,000 scientists areas the country. Mirror sites established by BTIS net are also accessed by users from outside countries. The services include analysis of biological data, bibliographic references to published literature in biotechnology (including patent data), software development for computationally intensive problems in biology such as molecular modeling, genome analysis, protein engineering for rational drug design, etc. A printed directory of resources available at each center is also produced each year. The same directory is made available on the web of DBT (BTIS).

A national Biotechnology server has been established with the domain address of www.btisnet.ac.in, that supports e-mail exchange by the scientific community in the country. DBT investigators’ mail server has been created as a part of BIOGRID to communicate transparently by the investigators. The e-mail address for this server is dbtinvestigators@dbt.gov.in.

Implementation of Biogrid of India
Research in biotechnology, which is highly knowledge and capital intensive, has generated a deluge of information in this decade. To make use of this information effectively there is a need for high speed and large bandwidth network. Towards this end, the Department has successfully established a high-speed and high-bandwidth network in the form of Virtual Public Network (VPN) named as BIOGRID INDIA. Eleven nodes have been established in the first phase, which are actively pursuing bioinformatics activities such as human resource development and R&D in bioinformatics besides, dissemination of biotechnology information to researchers in the country. The nodes are interconnected through 2mbps dedicated leased circuit line at each location and 4Mbps Internet bandwidth shared from the central server by all the nodes. The BIOGRID allows exchange of database & softwares which have been created/acquired by the individual centers/nodes of BTIS. This resource sharing helps in enhancing the value and usefulness of the BTIS, the only true resource sharing network in India.

The Department is also supporting long-term teaching programs on bioinformatics and BIOGRID will be useful in sharing teaching materials, to deliver lectures through video conferencing-virtual classrooms besides synergizing research in biotechnology and bioinformatics. In the second and third phase the remaining centres and DBT institutions are envisaged to be covered under the faster network. The mirror sites of internationally recognized genomic databases such as GDB, Protein Data Bank (PDB), Plant Genome Data Banks, Databases of European Bioinformatics institute (EBI) and public domain bioinformatics software packages are also available on the BIOGRID. The advantage of mirroring these databases in India is to provide unhindered mining of high quality data from well established primary and secondary information sources. Commercial softwares essential to carry out research & training in bioinformatics will also be made available through biogrid. The network will act as a knowledge pathway for discoveries in biotechnology and bioinformatics.

Development of databases/resource directories
More than 100 subject specific databases are currently available on the BTISnet. Each centre is responsible for developing a database in the identified thrust areas. Some of these efforts have received international recognition. For example, a major database on animal viruses developed by the center at University of Pune has been recognized by the Microbial Strain Data Network, CODATA, a Committee of International Council of Sciences on Data for science & technology and other international bodies.

Strengthening of biocomputing facilities
A national facility has been established at IIT Delhi towards the development of In-silico drug development by using bioinformatics applications. The Facility was dedicated to the nation by the Hon’ble Minister for S&T Prof. Murli Manohar Joshi. During this occasion, software of gene to drug developed by IIT Delhi was released by Hon’ble MOS (S&T) Shri Bachi Singh Rawat. The facility is being networked through Biogrid India so as to use the compute power & softwares at IIT Delhi by the Biogrid nodes remotely.

R&D Activities
The Bioinformatics Centres are being extensively used for intensive research by the hosts and neighboring institutions. The acknowledgements to BTIS centers in more that 500 research articles published in high quality peer reviewed journals points out the usefulness of this activity. In addition scientists at bioinformatics centres have carried out research in gene analysis, protein structure prediction & engineering, modeling, macromolecular assembly, evolutionary biology developing tools for peptide vaccine, metabolic pathways engineering, new tools for data mining etc.

International Cooperation
Cooperation with India has been sought by several countries in this emerging field of Bioinformatics in view of the progress made and expertise developed. Under a UNDP/FAO/UNIDO sponsored initiative, a referral centre has been set up as part of the Apex Bioinformatics centre in DBT to maintain regional information on various aspects of the FARM programme, viz. Farming systems, Watershed Management, Agroforestry, Integrated Pest Management, Safe Pesticides, Biotechnology & Biodiversity and People’s Participation. Through the initiatives of DBT, network connectivity had been established at national focal points in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. DBT also coordinated a meeting of the SAARC countries in India to develop mechanisms for exchange of scientific information in biotechnology amongst the SAARC member-countries. Another international cooperation with Weizmann institute of science (WIS), Israel has been initiated as part of international cooperation in Bioinformatics sponsored by UNESCO. Under this programme, India will host a regional node in Bioinformatics along with other regional nodes proposed in China, Poland and Turkey. The Central node had been set up at the WIS, Israel; India has been recognized to host the regional node in bioinformatics with particular emphasis to extend the regional cooperation to the SAARC countries. Cooperation on bioinformatics with Govt. of Malaysia has recently been approved and with Maldives is under active consideration.

Training/Workshops/Long term courses in Bioinformatics
A number of workshops and training programmes were conducted on the use of computers and databanks in modern biology and biotechnology. Considering the importance of the subject, some institutions and university Departments have introduced the Bioinformatics course in their existing post – graduate programmes in Biotechnology. DBT has introduced a long-term academic course in Bioinformatics leading to the award of an advanced diploma in Bioinformatics in five Universities viz. Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, University of Pune, Pune, JNU, New Delhi, Calcutta University, Kolkata and Pondicherry University, Pondicherry. There had been a sudden increase in the demand of such professionals by small size gene-hunting companies. Many of the larger pharmaceutical companies are now seeing real value in gene mapping and sequence data and have started attracting experts from academia. In light of these developments, the efforts started by DBT are likely to be rewarding towards generation of employment opportunities.

Top rank for DBT on IT implementation
The Department of biotechnology has captured top 4th rank in IT implementation towards e-readiness. This has been announced recently by the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) through their survey carried out through an independent agency. The central node of BITS is responsible for all IT related activities in the DBT.

3. New initiatives for the 10th plan
Bioinformatics cannot be ignored by any country intending to remain up-to-date in the biomedical, biotechnological and agricultural sector. In addition countries like India must manage their own scientific data of indigenous biological species, local epidemiological data and biodiversity. These tasks require statistics and informatics experts to interact with biologists and use bioinformatics software. This will lead to development of capability to solve problems locally. To facilitate this process bioinformatics/biocomputing shall be introduced in all DBT supported educational activities. Establishment of small software groups and companies will be also encouraged. At present, advanced bioinformatics is concentrated at a few research centers and private companies around the world that have the capacity to employ personnel with highly specialized training.

Establishment of Centres of Excellence (COE) in Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is growing as an independent discipline and helping immensely to accelerate the growth of Biotechnology. Simultaneously there is enormous growth in the biological data. The size of the data banks particularly related to molecular biology is doubling every nine months. Ever year new web based at least 100 biological data bases are created either of primary data or secondary data. There is thus need to create leaders in bioinformatics which will provide a new direction in this fast changing area. In earlier years BTIS has created several centres in different parts of the country, at different research laboratories and Universities and observed that a few centres among these have potential to take up the leadership role in Bioinformatics. It has been therefore decided to establish five advanced research & training centres in the country by enhancing the existing infrastructure, by providing additional man power and giving the flexibility in their governance. These centres are termed as Centres of Excellence (COE) in bioinformatics. The missions of the COE will be to undertake advance research in bioinformatics, provide Ph.D. and post doctoral training, develop new solutions so that the Bioinformatics industry in India will get support to solve complex biological problems and get the required high end man power. These COE will help in creating IP in bioinformatics in a major fashion. Thus COE’s will have state of the art computational facilities, access to the fast network and establish a network of experts with different background such as modern biology systematics, computer science, information technology, biomaterials statistics etc. These centres will utilize the advancements in biotechnology, biological sciences to help India to become the leader in Bioinformatics.

Upgrdation of selective Sub-DICS into DICS
It has been recognized that few bioinformatics centres with little support from DBT have done extremely well in last few years due to their own interest in this area, support from the parent organization, existing leadership and pressure from the peer group etc. DBT will support these identified centres by enhancing their infrastructural facilities and also by providing additional man power. The infrastructure supported to these small centres will be brought at par with major centres – distributed information centres of BTIS. These upgraded centres are expected to expand their R & D activities, human resource development activities and creation of intellectual property.

Dedicated high speed network for the BTISNET
It has been proposed to expand the High Speed BIOGRD INDIA (VPN) for the BTISnet for fast and reliable connectivity to achieve nearly instantaneous access to the biological databases by the scientific community. Pooling of hardware infrastructure on this platform would also curtail the expenditure on high-end computers at different places. Access to on-line journals will be introduced as part of this network.

Setting up to Teraflop/ Petaflop Super Computer Facilities for Bioinformatics
As the concept of virtual laboratory system is vigorously being followed in the field of Biotechnology, there is a need to establish a powerful computing systems to carry out genome sequence to function analysis, protein structure prediction, pathway modeling, molecular modeling and simulation studies. Unless the existing computational tools evolve and new revolutionary systems emerge the promise that the new biology holds will largely remain unfulfilled. The need for high performance computing facility needs not be emphasized. It has been decided to establish such supercomputing facility at one or two centers in collaboration with computer industry that will attract Indian scientists to take up highly challenging computational intensive problem to bridge the gap between developed nations and India.

Human Resource Development
Considering the requirement of postgraduate level manpower to conduct R&D in bioinformatics, there is a need to introduce postgraduate courses like M.Sc./ M.Tech./ Ph.D. in bioinformatics universities conducting the post diploma courses in bioinformatics would be encouraged to take initiative to start these courses so that the infrastructure can be used to its full capacity and quality training will be provided.

Databases / Software Development
Several subject specific databases/software for the application of biotechnology research would be developed and made available on BIOGRID for access to scientific community. Integration of databases developed by BTIS centers will be carried out. System will be developed to upgrade the quality of database.

Training Activities on Bioinformatics
Short term and long term training courses in bioinformatics for scientists from different disciplines in biology, statistics, computer science are very important and over the years found highly useful. These activities will be intensified. Experts from other countries will be used as resource persons along with Indian experts. Upgradation of knowledge base and convergence of knowledge of experts from different disciplines to bioinformatics will be achieved. Use and application of bioinformatics in Agri-biotechnology and environment biotechnology due to recent advancements will be focused through these training programmes.