Developing skills of bioinformatics are major problems in bioinformatics trainee, students, or students/working professionals with pure biology background.
Problems of developing bioinformatics sector in India are:
- The major issue for India is its transition from a recognized global leader in software development to areas of real strength upon which it can capitalize in the biosciences.
- The identifiable areas are in computation biology and bioinformatics, where a substantial level of development skills are required to develop custom applications to knot together and integrate disparate databases (usually from several global locations), simulations, molecular images, docking programs etc.
- The industry people, meanwhile, say that the mushrooming of bioinformatic institutes is creating a problem of finding talented and trained individuals in this industry.
- While many of them have a superficial knowledge and a certificate, India lacks true professionals in this area.
- Most people, who opt for bioinformatics are from the life sciences areas that do not have exposure to the IT side of bioinformatics, which is very important.
- Another issue is that some companies face shortage of funds and infrastructure.
- The turn around time for an average biotech industry to break even would be around three to five years.
- Most of the venture capitals and other sources of funding would not be very supportive, especially if the company is not part of a larger group venture.
- It would help if the government would take an active role in building infrastructure and funding small and medium entrepreneurs.
