BTIS: Empowering Biotechnology Through Information

In biotechnology research, information is just as valuable as laboratory equipment. A single genome can contain billions of data points, and making sense of that data requires organised systems, fast networks, and trained people. The Biotechnology Information System (BTIS) was India’s answer to this challenge. Established in 1987 by the Department of Biotechnology, it became a national bioinformatics network designed to collect, process, and share biological information with researchers across the country. This post explains how BTIS came into being, how it is structured, what it has achieved, and how it continues to build human resources in bioinformatics.

Origins and thrust areas of BTIS
What the system set out to do
Structure of the BTIS network
Coordination through an apex centre
Key achievements of BTIS
BIOGRID India, the high-speed backbone
Databases and research output
Connectivity and resource sharing
Training and education in bioinformatics
From workshops to degree programmes
Practical training opportunities
A network that keeps evolving

Origins and thrust areas of BTIS

The story of BTIS begins in the mid-1980s, when bioinformatics was still a young field worldwide. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) recognised that advanced research in modern biology would soon depend on information technology to manage exploding volumes of sequence data. A bioinformatics programme, planned as a distributed database and network organisation, was launched during 1986-87 under the country’s Seventh Five Year Plan.

The vision behind the system is credited largely to Dr S. Ramachandran, the founder Secretary of the newly created Department of Biotechnology. He foresaw the coming surge in biological data and understood that scientists would need the skills and tools to interpret it. The groundwork for the network was laid around 1985-86, with Dr N. Seshagiri, the founder Director General of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), helping drive the technical effort. This collaboration between DBT and NIC gave BTIS a strong computing backbone from the start.

India holds a notable distinction here. It was the first country in the world to establish a dedicated biotechnology information system network aimed at harnessing biotechnology through the application of bioinformatics. This early start gave Indian researchers a head start in building infrastructure and expertise.

What the system set out to do

BTIS was built around a clear set of goals. Its primary aim was to create a specialised information infrastructure that could share up-to-date resources with research scientists and develop bioinformatics tools for use in biotechnology and molecular biology. Beyond this, the programme focused on several thrust areas:

Research and development: Undertaking advanced computer-based methods to analyse the structure and function of biologically important molecules. Education and training: Running programmes to train information scientists and users who handle biotechnology information. National and international cooperation: Building network arrangements to exchange scientific information and expertise. Network capacity: Strengthening the speed and bandwidth of the network so that fast access was feasible at every node.

An interesting feature of Indian bioinformatics shaped these thrust areas. Unlike the United States and Europe, where the field grew out of sequence analysis, India’s strong tradition in crystallography and biophysics, rooted in the legacy of G. N. Ramachandran, tilted its early bioinformatics work towards structural perspectives, such as protein modelling and molecular structure analysis.

Structure of the BTIS network

One of the defining strengths of BTIS is its decentralised, distributed design. Instead of concentrating resources in a single national centre, the system spreads them across the country so that researchers in different regions can access data and collaborate easily.

The network was built on a tiered structure of Distributed Information Centres (DICs) and supporting sub-centres. The DICs provide discipline-oriented information to institutions and individual scientists, each specialising in a particular area of biotechnology. Below them, sub-centres extend the reach of the network into more institutions. Together, these centres formed the operational backbone of BTIS, with the DICs acting as specialised hubs and the sub-centres broadening regional access.

Coordination through an apex centre

To keep this large network running smoothly, coordination is handled by an apex body. The DBT Apex Biotechnology Information Centre (BTIC) is located at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi. Its main job is to help DBT coordinate the BTISNet centres situated across the country. The apex centre even developed software to monitor the progress of individual centres, which assists DBT in making decisions about future funding and research directions.

Over time the network grew far beyond its original footprint. BTISNet, as it came to be called, became the first major science and technology network in biotechnology in India, eventually networking more than 150 bioinformatics centres in universities and research institutions. This makes it one of the largest distributed networks of bioinformatics centres in the world. The centres work across sub-areas including structural bioinformatics, drug discovery, genome informatics, metagenomics, systems biology, and agricultural and animal bioinformatics.

Key achievements of BTIS

Decades of investment have produced concrete results. The achievements of BTIS range from building a high-speed national network to creating databases and contributing to global science.

BIOGRID India, the high-speed backbone

A standout milestone is the creation of BIOGRID India. The DBT established a high-speed, high-bandwidth network in the form of a Virtual Private Network named BIOGRID India. This was the first network of its kind in the country to provide large bandwidth and high-speed connectivity among various institutions, along with a high-performance national computing facility. BIOGRID effectively linked the scattered centres into a single, fast research grid, allowing scientists to access shared databases and computing power regardless of where they were located.

BIOGRID remains central to DBT’s plans. The department continues to invite proposals for new and upgraded bioinformatics centres under BIO-GRID, with objectives aligned to the goal of making India a global biotechnology hub by 2030.

Databases and research output

The centres under BTIS have produced a wide variety of specialised databases and research tools. In its earlier years, individual centres developed resources tailored to their host institutions. For example, a centre at IIT Delhi built bibliographic databases on chromatography and bioreactor control, while a centre at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore created a germplasm information system for crops such as rice, pearl millet, and cotton. Other centres developed databases on tissue culture cell lines and vaccines. These early efforts laid the foundation for the genomics, protein modelling, and molecular biology research that the network supports today.

The cumulative impact on research is significant. Over three decades, Indian bioinformatics has created a large number of centres, trained skilled people, participated in international sequencing projects, and contributed to knowledge discovery through publications and tools. Analysis of publication data shows that India is among the top contributors to the field, accounting for roughly seven per cent of total bioinformatics publications worldwide.

BTIS also drove the spread of computing and internet access in research institutions. Many of its centres were connected through the satellite communication network of NICNET, and several universities received VSAT connectivity. The network accelerated the use of the internet and resource sharing among institutions, and it hosted information resources that could be accessed worldwide. It also enabled India to share biotechnology and biodiversity information with partner countries under international programmes.

Training and education in bioinformatics

Building networks and databases is only useful if there are skilled people to run them. From the beginning, BTIS placed heavy emphasis on human resource development, recognising that advances in bioinformatics created a need for professionals trained in both information technology and biology.

According to a review in Briefings in Bioinformatics, the establishment of the BTIS network was a systematic effort to develop bioinformatics infrastructure and serve the scientific community. As the field matured, capacity-building programmes were initiated, and educational offerings gradually evolved from short-term workshops into formal diploma and degree programmes.

From workshops to degree programmes

The spectrum of bioinformatics education in India today ranges from short courses to full PhD programmes, with a majority funded by government agencies. DBT supported infrastructure and teaching programmes, including M.Sc. courses and Centres of Excellence, at institutions such as the Bioinformatics Centre at the University of Pune, which serves as a well-documented case study of how these programmes developed. Strong teaching initiatives by DBT at the postgraduate level across the country were a major reason for the growth of the field.

This education effort is part of a wider DBT push. The department’s Postgraduate Teaching Programme, running since 1985, supports M.Sc. and M.Tech. courses in biotechnology and allied areas, including computational biology, across universities in India. To bring standards to a field that was growing rapidly and somewhat unevenly, DBT also introduced bioinformatics certification examinations and associated fellowships.

Practical training opportunities

Beyond classroom degrees, students can gain hands-on industry experience. The Bioinformatics Industrial Training Programme (BIITP), coordinated on behalf of DBT, places bioinformatics students in companies for practical training, with each trainee receiving a monthly stipend. Such schemes connect academic learning with industry needs and help students identify career paths while giving companies access to potential employees.

A network that keeps evolving

BTIS is not a static system. As high-throughput platforms and next-generation sequencing began generating massive volumes of biological data, DBT revamped BTISNet in 2020 to refocus its centres. The new direction emphasises large national network projects, data-driven research, and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to biological data. This shift shows that the original 1987 vision, of a distributed information system serving biotechnology, remains relevant even as the underlying technology changes dramatically.

For students of information science, BTIS is a strong example of how a well-designed national information system can shape an entire scientific field. It combined infrastructure, networking, databases, and human resource development into a single coordinated programme, and in doing so helped place India among the leading contributors to global bioinformatics.

What do you think? How might the distributed, decentralised model of BTIS be applied to information systems in other scientific disciplines? And as artificial intelligence reshapes data analysis, what new skills should bioinformatics training programmes prioritise to keep researchers ahead of the curve?

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Table of Contents

Origins and thrust areas of BTIS 🔗

What the system set out to do 🔗

Structure of the BTIS network 🔗

Coordination through an apex centre 🔗

Key achievements of BTIS 🔗

BIOGRID India, the high-speed backbone 🔗

Databases and research output 🔗

Connectivity and resource sharing 🔗

Training and education in bioinformatics 🔗

From workshops to degree programmes 🔗

Practical training opportunities 🔗

A network that keeps evolving 🔗