| India has made major strides
in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. The industry growth in
these areas is spectacular. The growth can be better if India
is able to create high quality human resources and provide
industry relevant training. Last few years several private
institutions and universities have started Bioinformatics
courses and training programs at various levels. The quality
of the training given in these institutions and universities
is not in the uniform level. This has created two main problems
mainly the industry is not getting the desired quality manpower
which is affecting their growth in terms of carrying out contract
research as well as the development of bioinformatics software
tools and generation of IPR. Secondly which is rather equally
important is that the young students do not find the job even
after they try substantially for such training and thus the
disillusionment among students and parents. Therefore, DBT
has decided to conduct national level Bioinformatics Certificate
Exam to identify quality bioinformaticians. The task is assigned
to Bioinformatics Centre, University of Pune. A National Coordination
Committee under the Chairmanship of Prof. Ashok Kolaskar was
formed with the experts from Jawaharlal Nehru University,
Madurai Kamaraj University, Anna University, West Bengal University
of Technology, Pondicherry University, Institute of Bioinformatics
and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore; Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore; Bose Institute, Calcutta, Department of
Biotechnology, University of Pune, etc. The test was designed
in three parts. The first part of the test was fundamentals
through objective type question paper, second part was to
test the knowledge of Bioinformatics through short answers
and third part was the practical on the computers. The syllabus
was designed by the experts and kept on the web at least four
months in advance with model question paper and all the details
as to how the examination would be conducted. The examination
was conducted at Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.
In the first year 2006, not a single student could get in
the first paper more than 50% marks and thus no one qualified
out of 314. However, the examinations conducted in the next
year 2007, 8 students were qualified and in 2008, 12 candidates
have been qualified. The trend shows BINC pass percentage
increases year wise and with this progress we can achieve
generation of enough number of Bioinformatics qualified personal
in the country to minimize the present gap of skilled human
resource to work on hard core Bioinformatics problems. To
popularize this scheme the DBT is also offering cash prizes
for the toppers of BINC and fellowships similar to NET and
GATE for the all BINC qualified candidates to facilitate pursuing
PhD in this field.
Please visit the website for further information: http://bioinfo.ernet.in/BINC/
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