Abstract: Rice has been identified as a model crop for genomic research not only because of its economic importance but also desirable attributes of its genome. Great advances have been made in structural and functional gernomics analysis under IRGP. The working draft has been published in 2002 and a finished draft is due to be ready by 2005. The availability of high througput technologies has greatly facilitated the sequencing of rice genome. Advances in proteomics, gene chips and microarrays have facilitated functional validation of rice gemnome by analysing gene expression profiles. Due to great synteny in grass family in gene order and content, the results can sucessfully be applied to other members with complex genomes besides other orphan crops. The genomics research will usher a new era in rice improvement by facilating large scale gene discovery, development of transgenics and marker assisted selection besider unravelling many critical phenomenon such as gene expression, interaction and genetic basis of heterosis thus in coming years genomics is surely going to have a major impact on pace of rice improvement.