Union Minister Jitendra Singh, along with the Vice President of CSIR, inaugurated the state-of-the-art “National Biobank” at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) in the capital on Sunday. The facility marks a significant step toward strengthening India’s health data infrastructure and advancing personalised treatment in the future.

According to the statement issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the biobank enlisting comprehensive genomic, lifestyle, and clinical data from 10,000 individuals across India will serve as the backbone of a nationwide cohort study. The project was initiated to capture the country’s unique diversity across geography, ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds.

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The new data sets will help in early diagnosis, improve therapeutic targeting, and bolster the fight against complex diseases such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular ailments, and rare genetic disorders.

“Today, we hold the promise of a future where every Indian may receive individualised treatment tailored to their genetic makeup, lifestyle, and environment,” Singh said while addressing the scientists and researchers at IGIB. “This transition to personalised healthcare is no longer theoretical—it is becoming reality, driven by Indigenous innovations.”

The minister also underscored the importance of the Biobank in developing population-specific strategies to address the unique disease patterns found among Indians. He cited the example of lean individuals in India who may carry disproportionate fat around the waist. “Our conditions are complex and deeply heterogeneous. This is where the Biobank becomes vital—it allows us to decode that complexity,” he said.

The Biobank, he added, will complement these efforts by generating the kind of high-resolution data that can power AI-driven diagnostics and gene-guided therapies.

The Phenome India Project, under which the Biobank has been launched, is designed to be a long-term, data-rich study tracking the health trajectories of individuals over several years. It will help scientists uncover disease patterns, gene-environment interactions, and response to therapies—all within the Indian context.

Speaking at the inaugural event, N. Kalaiselvi, Director General of CSIR and Secretary, DSIR, commended the launch of the Biobank as a bold step toward India’s self-reliance in healthcare data. Describing the initiative as a “baby step” with the potential to evolve into a global benchmark, she noted that the diversity and depth of the Indian cohort data could one day rival or even surpass global counterparts like the UK Biobank.