The Indian bioinformatics market, which is only 2.5% of the global market, has the potential to capture 5% of the global pie provided the government ushers in necessary changes, according to a report 'Building Blocks of Bioinformatics: Human Resource Requirements In India', prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department of Information Technology (DIT).

The report says the future seems very bright for the industry since majority of the Indian bioinformatics companies are planning to increase their scale of operations.

The report states that to capture 5% of the global market, the industry would need to grow at a CAGR of 42%. Painting a bullish picture, the report states that 42% of the sample companies are planning to increase the scale because they are investing more resources in R&D and product development. The report also adds that for expanding the operations, there would be a huge surge in demand for bioinformaticians.

The total annual manpower required by the industry to achieve a growth rate of 42% would be 6484 professionals in 2008-09 and 26362 professionals in 2012-13. Further, nearly 670 teachers would be required in the formal education sector in 2008-09. The report states that the demand for Indian bioinformatics professionals from rest of the world is expected to rise from 348 in 203-04 to a total of 8169 by 2012-13.

Human capital in India is available in abundance and this could prove to be a boon if adequate efforts are made to train, preserve and retain the available manpower. Industry strongly feels that the available manpower is sufficient, but it seriously lacks in terms of skills. According to the report, the industry attaches a huge importance to the level of experience of a candidate. The report finds that the industry wants experienced personnel rather than fresh graduates. Therefore, the institutes should include practical training in their curriculum so that the students get hands on experience during their education period.

According to the report, the gap between the expectations of the firms and the supply provided by academia needs to be bridged immediately so that India could harness its available potential and be among the top most bioinformatics destinations.

The aim of the CII-DIT study is to identify the existing and anticipated mismatches between supply and demand for the bioinformatics profession across all sectors of the economy. The report highlights the importance of bioinformatics to the economy in many sectors like Pharma, drug discovery, agriculture, medical devices etc.