ANNUAL REPORT - Department of Biotechnology

Bioinformatics National Certification (BINC)
Examination:
The department of biotechnology has conducted a
national level Bioinformatics Certification
Examination through University of Pune, Pune. The
purpose of this examination is to ensure high
standard in Bioinformatics. Besides this would also
help in identifying outstanding Bioinformatics
professionals in the country. This type of
examination was first time conducted in India and
has been well received across the country and
outside the country as well. Several ASEAN
countries have requested India to offer this model for
their use. Without diluting the standard the
examination, it is now being conducted for the year
2007 by the Pune University in association with JNU,
West Bengal University, Anna University, IBAB etc.
For further details please visit http:/bioinfo.ernet.in
Independent Review of BITSnet:
An independent review committee constituted by
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DBT has reviewed the BITSnet activities of 10 plan
period. The committee comprises of members from
academia, industry and NGOs. It has reviewed
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various activities undertaken during the 10 plan
period and appreciated DBT's effort in executing
various important activities such as bioinformatics
capacity building, human resource development,
R&D activities, networking of various institutions and
bringing the remote institutions in the main stream of
activities etc. The committee also recommended
benchmarking of various databases and software
packages developed through this program. The
Sub-DICs of BITSnet requires close review to
improve some of the center's activities.
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Overall Impact of the 10 plan
Bioinformatics applications in various areas of
biotechnology is growing constantly. 1000
publications have been published in various peer
reviewed journals by the BTIS centers during the last
4 years. Besides this 3000 research publications
were published through the support of the BTISnet
resources. 200 databases have been developed and
over 100 software programs have been developed by
the centers. More than 10, 000 personal have been
trained in Bioinformatics and 30, 000 users are
interacting with the BTISnet centres for information
resources and are getting other bioinformatics
support. The quality of research papers published
from India is growing as the software packages are
helping to analyze the data effectively. The small
institutes have greatly benefited due to
establishment of bioinformatics centres. The
Bioinformatics Centres in the bigger institutions have
carried out R&D and human resources development
besides providing Bioinformatics support to the host
institution and the other networking institutions.
PUBLICATIONS
Training Calendar 2006-2007:
Training Calendar for the year 2006-2007 was
published during this year, which has been circulated
to various institutions. A total of 85 training programs
were included in this publication in 6 different areas of
bioinformatics. These include bioinformatics
analysis in biotechnology, bioinformatics in animal
and agriculture biotechnology, bioinformatics and
biodiversity/environment, bioinformatics in
genomics, proteomics & in-silico drug design,
computational systems biology and general topics
and International conferences on Bioinformatics. The
training calendar is also made available thorough
bioinformatics website of DBT (www.btisnet.gov.in).
BIOBYTES Open Access News Letter:
An open access newsletter BIOBYTES of BITSnet
has been published this year. This was released
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during the inauguration InCoB2006 on 18
December 2006. The newsletter has been compiled
by COE/ MKU Madurai. BIOBYTES is meant to
serve as a medium of continuous update of ideas and
information. It will also provide news, views, and
information regarding the current scenario in the
areas related to bioinformatics and biotechnology
both at the national and international level. The
BIOBYTES is accessible through URL
(http://biobytes.bicmku.in)
161 Biotechnology Information System Network