The Central Government will soon have an accreditation system in place to approve the bio-informatics institutions in the country. The government move is intended to have a quality check on the bio-informatics education and services offered by the private institutions in India. It will also help the government have a proper statistics on the number of institutions that are offering bio-informatics courses and services in the private sector.
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MIT), in association with the Department of Biotechnology has formed a high level committee to look into the matter. The committee, which has already met once, is planning to evolve an accreditation system similar to the one existing for IT training and service institutions.
The committee has taken note of the tremendous increase in the number of institutions claiming to offer bio-informatics training and services in the country. The need for a proper data about the institutions and proper quality check were given top priority by the committee, it is learnt.
Once there is a set criterion for qualifying the infrastructure facility, the training and the services, the government could think of promoting quality institutions in this sunrise area. The accredited institutions can enjoy the credibility and develop high-end bio-informatics tools for the world market.
The only recognized programme at present is the DBT initiated bio-informatics programme, envisaged as a distributed database and network organisation, which was launched in 1987.
The programme is today a very successful vehicle for transfer and exchange of information, scientific knowledge, technology packages, and references in the country involving 10-12 thousand scientific personnel. Ten Distributed Information Centres and an Apex Centre at the Department of Biotechnology, and 46 Sub-Distributed Information Centres, located in universities and research institutes of national importance, are fully engaged in this task. Six national facilities have been set up for interactive graphics based molecular modelling and other bio-computational needs. Four long-term courses at the level of post MSc Diploma in Bio-informatics, at Poona University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Calcutta University and Madurai Kamaraj University, are fulfilling the long outstanding need for trained human resources in this inter-disciplinary area.
The accreditation system will also bring the private sector players also into the recognized field of bio-informatics training and services. It has been estimated that India would have an income of $750 million from biotech products and services by the year 2005, which would double in the ensuing next two years to reach $1.5 billion in 2007. About 60 per cent of this revenue is to come from the commercialization of bio-informatics tools.