The paper describes the rapid arising of a national-level research information management infrastructure (RIM) in India as a case study for a bottom-up Current Research Information System (CRIS) implementation strategy. Less than a year and a half after its first launch, the Indian Research Information Network System (IRINS) has become a widespread institutional RIM asset with over 180 instances at Indian research-performing organisations. As a result, India is currently leading the classification by number of CRIS per country in the euroCRIS Directory of Research Information Systems (DRIS), followed by Norway and the United Kingdom.As a background to the case study, the broad international CRIS context is also analysed. The causes for the quick rise of such systems are examined, together with their national-level implementation models in various countries and the differences between CRIS and expert finder systems.