Advances in DNA sequencing and other high-throughput technologies along with a steep drop in DNA sequencing cost have enabled government agencies to fund research towards generation of large volumes of biological data in various sectors of Biosciences. Towards this, two major urgent needs got highlighted (i) to have a National Biological Data Centre and. (ii) to have a National Policy which will guide on biological data collection, storage, access and sharing.

 

Government of India has given emphasis on open data policy and recently issued ‘National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP)’ through Meity and DST for implementation by all the ministries/ departments. In conformity to this, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) had prepared Zero Draft on ‘Biological Data Storage, Access and Sharing Policy of India (BDSASP)’ aiming at broad research use of biological data that enhances public benefits by facilitating speedy discoveries in biosciences directly associated with human being.

 

This Zero Draft was thoroughly discussed by the Advisory Committee constituted by DBT to frame “Biological Data Storage, Access and Sharing Policy of India” which had representation of the concerned government agencies and domain experts. The present revised document ‘Draft 1’ is thus prepared based on the consultations done so far.

 

DBT has requested that comments/observations pertaining to the same may be conveyed positively by July 31st, 2019 at this email: policy@dbt.nic.in

DBT has invited comments on ‘Biological Data Storage, Access and Sharing Policy of India’ from all the stakeholders- government agencies, institutions, industry/researchers engaged in Biological Sciences R&D.