UPSC Prelims 2026 Q48: GenomeIndia Project — Explained
Which of the following statements with regard to GenomeIndia Project is/are correct?
1. It is a part of the Human Genome Project.
2. The project is funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India.
3. Its primary aim is to build a catalogue of genetic diversity of the Indian population.
- 1 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1 and 2 only
- 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only
Statement-wise explanation
- 1: incorrect — The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international project that ran from 1990 to 2003. It produced the first full reference sequence of the human genome, and India was not a member of its consortium. GenomeIndia is a separate national project. It was launched in January 2020, funded by India's Department of Biotechnology and run by a group of about 20 Indian institutions led by the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at IISc Bengaluru. It builds on the reference genome that the HGP produced, but it is not part of the HGP.
- 2: correct — PIB's own description is that GenomeIndia is 'funded by the Department of Biotechnology' (DBT), which sits under the Ministry of Science & Technology. DBT also set up the Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) where the data is stored. In January 2025 DBT released the FeED (Framework for Exchange of Data) protocols, which govern how researchers can access that data.
- 3: correct — DBT's original project title was 'GenomeIndia: Cataloguing the Genetic Variation in Indians'. The project has sequenced the whole genomes of 10,074 healthy people from 83 population groups, collected at 99 sites. About 36.7% of samples came from rural, 32.2% from urban and 31.1% from tribal populations. The result is a reference library of Indian genetic variation for research, diagnostics and precision medicine.
How to eliminate
Statement 3 is the easiest to accept, because the name 'GenomeIndia' already suggests mapping Indian genetic diversity. That rules out the option '1 only', and also '1 and 2 only' since it leaves out statement 3. You are left with '2 and 3 only' or '1, 2 and 3', so the question comes down to statement 1. Use basic chronology: the Human Genome Project ended in 2003, and GenomeIndia began in 2020. A project launched 17 years after the HGP closed cannot be 'a part of' it. Statement 2 is also a safe guess, because DBT is the lead agency for almost every Indian genomics programme (GenomeIndia, UMMID, IBDC). Fact to remember: GenomeIndia = DBT-funded, launched in 2020, 10,000 genomes, led by CBR at IISc.
Know more
Genome sequencing projects: global vs Indian
A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA. The Human Genome Project (HGP), which ran from 1990 to 2003, produced one reference sequence of the human genome. A reference genome cannot show how people differ from each other. Population projects such as GenomeIndia sequence thousands of individuals to record that genetic variation: the differences in DNA letters between people and between communities.
India needs its own database because its population has many communities that married mostly within the group (endogamy). These groups carry distinctive variants, including variants linked to disease, and global databases have very few Indian samples.
| Feature | Human Genome Project | GenomeIndia |
|---|---|---|
| Period | 1990–2003 | Launched January 2020 |
| Nature | International consortium | National, funded by DBT |
| Output | One reference human genome | Whole genomes of 10,074 healthy Indians from 83 populations |
| Goal | Read the full human DNA sequence | Catalogue genetic variation among Indians |
| Data home | Public international databases | Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC), Faridabad |
Related Indian programmes and frameworks
- IBDC: national repository for life-science data, set up by DBT.
- Biotech-PRIDE Guidelines and FeED protocols (January 2025): rules for sharing genomic data with researchers.
- UMMID: a DBT programme on inherited (genetic) disorders.
- Phenome National Biobank at CSIR-IGIB: links genetic data with lifestyle and clinical data.
Uses: precision medicine (treatment matched to a patient's genes), screening for rare genetic diseases, choosing drug doses based on genes (pharmacogenomics), making Indian genotyping chips, and studying population history.
In the news
On 9 January 2025, DBT released GenomeIndia's 10,000-genome dataset at the Genome Data Conclave, together with the FeED protocols and the IBDC data portal, and the Prime Minister addressed the event. In February 2026, before the Prelims, a Parliament reply on personalised medicine again said that GenomeIndia had completed sequencing of more than 10,000 Indians.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Genetic diversity: Statement 3 depends on what 'genetic diversity' means: the variation in DNA between people that GenomeIndia catalogued across 83 Indian population groups.