WHAT IS BTIS? WHY BTIS? OBJECTIVES BIOGRID RESOURCES R&D PROJECTS BTIS CENTRES IN INDIA INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION REFERENCES India is the first country in the world to establish in 1987 a biotechnology information system (BTIS) network to create an infrastructure of biotechnology through the application of bioinformatics. The Department of Bio-Technology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology , Government of India has taken up this infrastructure development project and created a distributed network at a very low cost.

1. BIOTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION SYSTEM
{BTIS}
By
KAUSHAL KUMAR SAHU
Assistant Professor (Ad Hoc)
Department of Biotechnology
Govt. Digvijay Autonomous P. G. College
Raj-Nandgaon ( C. G. )

2. CONTENTS
• WHAT IS BTIS?
• WHY BTIS?
• OBJECTIVES
• BIOGRID
• RESOURCES
• R&D PROJECTS
• BTIS CENTRES IN INDIA
• INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
• REFERENCES

3. WHAT IS BTIS?
• It is a National Bioinformatics Network.
• India is the first country in the world to establish in 1987 a
biotechnology information system (BTIS) network to create an
infrastructure of biotechnology through the application of
bioinformatics.
• The Department of Bio-Technology (DBT), Ministry of Science
and Technology , Government of India 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,

4. WHY BTIS ?
• Research And Development Activities in modern biology and biotechnology
are much information-dependent fields.
• Growth of biotechnology has accelerated particularly during the last decade
due to path breaking advancements in biology and new technologies that
produce large & high quality data.
• The rate of growth of these data has been estimated to be more than 200
million bases per year.
• The contents of the databases itself is doubling in size approximately every
year.
• The large amounts of data generated through various forms are serving as a
source of knowledge to the scientists engaged in the field of biotechnology.
• The analysis of such large data and extraction of knowledge from this data is
possible only with the help of new algorithms and compute intensive
techniques.

5. OBJECTIVES
• To provide a national bioinformation network designed to bridge the inter-disciplinary
gaps on biotechnology information.
• To establish link among scientists in organizations involved in R&D and
manufacturing activities in the country
• To build information resources , prepare databases on biotechnology and to develop
relevant information handling tools and techniques
• To continuously assess information requirements
• To create and improve necessary infrastructure
• To provide informatics based support and services to the national community of
users working in biotechnology and associated areas
• To coordinate efforts to access biotechnology information worldwide including
establishing linkages with some of the international resources of biotechnology
information (e.g. databanks on genetic materials, published literature, patents and
other information of scientific and commercial value)

6. • To establish regional and international cooperation for exchange of
scientific information and expertise in biotechnology through the
development of appropriate network arrangements.
To build networking capabilities of BTISnet in terms of speed and
capacity of the network to make fast INTERNET access feasible at all
centre of the network.
• To undertake research into advance methods of computer-based
information processing for analyzing the structure and function of
biologically important molecules
• To evolve and implement programs on education of users and
training of information scientist responsible for handling of
biotechnology information and its applications to biotechnology
research and development

7. BIOGRID
• The DBT has successfully established a high-speed and high bandwidth
network in the form of Virtual Public Network (VPN) named as BIOGRID
INDIA .
• The nodes are interconnected through 2mbps dedicated leased circuit line at
each locations and 4mbps internet bandwidth shared from the central server
by all the nodes.
• The BIOGRID allows exchange of database and softwares which have
been created/acquired by the individual nodes of BTIS.
• This resources sharing helps in enhancing the value and usefulness of the
BTIS , the only true resource sharing network in India.

8. RESOURCES
• Database of BTISNet
- TRABAS by university of Calcutta, Kolkata
- AgAbDb by university of Pune, Pune
- PDB Goodies by Indian institute of science, Bangalore etc.
• Open Source Databases
- The Gene Ontology {GENOME}
- DIANA LAB {RNA}
- Protein Data Bank/PDB {Protein DBs} etc.
• Softwares
- Gene Ontology Based Prediction Analysis of Microarray Suite/GOPAM
- Special Repeat Finder/SRF etc.

9. • DeLCON /DBT-Electronic Library Consortium – a unique Electronic Journal Consortium
• Bioinformatics Tool Box
-DIC, IMTECH, Chandigarh
http://www.imtech.res.in/bic/
-Super computing facility at IIT, Delhi
http://www.scfbio-iitd.res.in/
• Online Lectures
-Malaysian Genomics Resource centre
http://www.mgrc.com.my/ess_elaine.shtml
- HHMI’s BioInteractive – Holiday Lectures on Science
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/hl/index.html
• Others
-Biology Workbench
http://www.workbench.sdsc.edu/

10. R&D PROJECTS
• Flagship Consortium Projects on TB & Rice Bioinformatics
• Mango Database
• Interactive Visual Diagnostic software to check nutrient deficiency in crops
• Myocilin structure prediction using knowledge based consensus

11. • Centres of Excellence – 7
Apex bioinformatics centre, DBT , new Delhi ; university of Pune , Jawahar Lal Nehru university(JNU)
,New Delhi; Madurai Kamaraj University(MKU),Madurai; Indian Institute of Science(IISC),Bangalore; Bose
Institute, Kolkata ; Super Computing Facility (IIT), New Delhi
• Distributed Information Centres (DICs)- 11
Anna University , centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology , Indian Agricultural Research Institute,
Institute Of Microbial Technology , Kerala Agricultural University ,M.S. University of Baroda , National
Institute of Immunology , North Eastern Hill University (Shillong), Pondicherry University, University of
Calcutta
• Distributed Information Sub- Centres (SubDICs) -51
Institute of Life Sciences Bhubaneshwar; Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata ; Indian
Institute of Technology , Kharagpur etc.
• Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF) for Biology Teaching Through Bioinformatics (BTBI) –
70
Vidyasagar University , Midnapur, West Bengal ; West Bengal University of Technology , Kolkata
West Bengal etc.
• North Eastern State – Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF) – 28
BTIS CENTRES IN INDIA

13. CENTER OF EXCELLENCE(COES)
These centers previously were DICs and were actively engaged in the bioinformatics activity.
The DBT have recognized the importance of their work and upgraded them as CoEs in
bioinformatics.
Eleven DICs have been established with the task of providing discipline-oriented information
to all institutions belonging to the branch as well as other institutions and individual users
interested in particular subject related to Biotechnology.
Distributed Information Sub Centres (SubDICs)
Distributed Information Sub-Centres provide an access mechanism for the information to be
available at the universities, R&D and manufacturing institutions. Thus, the distributed Sub-
Centres provide an added dimension of access and diffusion of information across the
network. Fourty five sub-centres have already been established.
Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF)
DBT has launched a new scheme under its BTISnet in the year 2006-07, namely Development of Bioinformatics
Infrastructure Facilities (BIF) to promote innovation in Biology Teaching through Bioinformatics (BTBI).
NORTH EASTERN STATE- BIOINFORMATICS INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITY (BIF)
These institutions are quite active in pursuing biotechnology with the support of
bioinformatics. More than 900 important e-Journals of Biotechnology are available through
NEBInet for access to the researchers.
Distributed Information Centres (DICs)

14. INTERNATIONAL CO- OPERATION
• Through the initiatives of DBT , network connectivity had been established at
national focal point in China , India ,Indonesia , Philippines , Thailand and
Vietnam.
• DBT also coordinate a meeting of the SAARC countries in India to develop
mechanism for exchange of scientific information in biotechnology amongst the
SAARC member - countries.
• Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel has been initiated as part of
international cooperation in Bioinformatics sponsored by UNESCO.
- Under this program , 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.
-Co-operation on bioinformatics with Govt. of Malaysia has recently been

15. REFERENCES
• http://www.btis.gov.in
• http://dbtindia.nic.in
• http://www.niobioinformatics.in/abtbtis.php