The current paper is conceptual, analytical in nature and deals with mainly following aim and objective—

To learn about the basics of Informatics; including its nature and characteristics.

As far as historical background is concerned in the year 1956, Karl Steinbach, a German computer scientist first coined the word Informatik in a paper called Informatik: Automatische Informations verarbeitung. However, in the year 1962, the term informatique was coined by Philippe together with various translations.

If we search then it can be noted that Mikhailov was advocated the Russian term informatika in the year 1966 and later on in 1967 the English term informatics was coined and become popular. Then it was appeared as a theory of scientific information and argued for a broader meaning. Further, it is a field of study and also uses of information technology in different kinds of sectors or various communities^[1],[9]. Further, it can be deemed as the interaction of technology with information with the human organizational structures (Refer Fig. 1 & 2).

Initially, the domain specific Health Informatics term got popularized and also many universities and educational institutes introduced and termed ‘Applied Informatics’. From the study, it has been noted that in European countries it is a kind of information centric field whereas in the United States it is more concentrated on Computing or used as an alternative to Applied Computing or to show the applications from the Computer Science.

Informatics is an applied science and treated as both academic and practicing subject. It is close with Information Science and Information Technology in many contexts^{[2], [7], [9]}. The field Informatics is a concern with collection, selection, organization, processing, management, and dissemination of information. Information processing activities are the core jobs of the Informatics and emerged during 1970-90s.

Informatics is treated as the alternative of the Information Technology and Computing field in many contexts. Informatics as a field can be seen with two foci, in first foci, it is the field with a concentration of information basics viz. information management, information processing,etc with a partial focus on technologies for doing these tasks; in another focus, the core concentration is on technologies^{[3], [13], [14]}.

Informatics is applicable not only in the IT organizations but also in educational Universities, Research Centers, Governments Department, and Ministries, etc. Here, Fig. 1- Depicted Information Science visà-vis Informatics- similarities and dissimilarities.

The branch ‘Information Science’ is broad enough and evolved as a scientific study of information. Gradually it was considered as a branch of study and concentrated on other subjects and among these Library & Information Science can be treated as important^{[09], [23]}.

However, the major difference between ‘Informatics’ and ‘Information Science’ is that, first one of practicing based (and now developed as a field as well) and the second one as an academic branch of study. We can see different types of Information Sciences similar to Informatics and among these major or important are—

Medical Information Science

Other subjects which have other domain concentration viz. in Chemistry (Chemo Informatics), in Bio Science (Bio Informatics) and other are not commonly available as Chemo Information Science or Bio Information Science^{[4],[17],[18],[19]}. So, it is clear that Informatics and Information Science; both are very close as well. Apart from this, some other very close fields are—

As an Applied Science, Informatics deals with various Computing and Information Technological components for the task of following—

Knowledge Management.

It is worthy to note that for the job and objective fulfillment of the branch ‘Informatics’, among the useful technological components few important are Database Technology, Network Technology, Web Technology, Multimedia Technology, Software Technology, etc. Within these technologies, many emerging tools and sub components are also using and rapidly growing viz.—

Network Technology the emerging and super specialty areas are Network Security, Cyber Security, Wireless Networks, Cloud Computing, Converged Network, and so on^{[6], [10], [11]}.

Web Technology is composed of different emerging areas viz. Usability Engineering, User Experience Designing, Human Computer Interaction, Web Designing and Development, Content Management, etc.

Whereas, Multimedia Technology deals with various areas viz. VFX, Usability Designing, Animation, Interactive Information Systems.

Software Technology is the most traditional area of IT and it deals with software and application development using various high level programming languages.

Database Technology is currently dealing with traditional Database Management, Data warehousing & mining, Advanced Information Management, Big Data Analytics, Data Science, etc.

Security Technology, combines with Web & Database Security, Network Security, including the latest Cloud and Mobile Security, etc. The issues such as IT Security Policies, Governance, etc are also important.

Based on the nature of the Informatics, it can be classified into differently and internationally based on academic institutions.

Informatics applications or integration with the Pure Science related areascan be considered as following—

Computational informatics.

Informatics of Biological Sciences are also very popular and widely available^{[4],[12],[15]}. The development of this approach is higher than that of Pure Science around the world.

Some researcher advocated and introduced different other Informatics namely—

Cloud Informatics

The field Informatics is broad enough and internationally different organizations, institutions, universities offers educational programs on Informatics ranging from Certificate, Diploma, Bachelors, Masters, Research Degrees^{[8], [16], [20]}.

It is worthy to note that among the Post Graduate Programs most available are Post Graduate Certificate, Post Graduate Diploma, Post Graduate Degrees leading to following—

MSc

Similarly, in Bachelors also programs are offered in the above mentioned degrees and this trend differs from country to country. In some institutes even innovative subject & informatics programs available viz. BS Biology and MS Bio Informatics.

As far as India is concerned, general Informatics is not available though, domain specific Informatics is available in many subjects viz.

Health Informatics,

Most of the universities have started to offer the programs in the concerned nomenclature department viz. Department of Health Informatics^{[7], [17], [22]}. There are different areas evolving as research emergences & frontiers Fig. 3.

Information is an important and vital source for each and every kind of organizations, institutions and so on. Information is very much close to the data and knowledge. Previously only information related affairs viz. collection to dissemination performed by the manual tools and techniques but the development of science and technology played a vital role in respect of information affairs. Informatics also started with different nomenclature viz. Informatics & Analytics, Informatics & Communication, Informatics and Information Management, Bio Medical Informatics, Informatics & Information Systems, etc. Even in domain centric Informatics, the merged title noticeable viz. Bio & Health Informatics, Geo & Environmental Informatics, etc. In India also use of the term Informatics is increasing both at Government and Private categories.