National Supercomputing Mission

About National Supercomputing Mission

 

• It was launched in 2015 to provide the country with supercomputing infrastructure to meet the increasing computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups.
• The Mission is steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
• The main objectives of the mission are:
  • Make India a world leader in High-Performance Computing (HPC) and enhance the national capability in solving grand challenge problems of national and global relevance.
  • Empower scientists & researchers with state-of-the-art computing facilities for their cutting-edge research in their respective Domains.
  • Reduce redundancies and avoid duplication of efforts and investments.
  • Create an ecosystem for positioning India as a major power for supercomputing and attain global competitiveness and self-reliance in HPC.
• The Mission envisages empowering academic and R&D institutions spread over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 HPC facilities.
• These supercomputers will also be networked on the National Supercomputing grid over the National Knowledge Network (NKN). The NKN is another programme of the government which connects academic institutions and R&D labs over a high speed network.
• Academic and R&D institutions, as well as key user departments/ministries, would participate by using these facilities and developing applications of national relevance.
• The Mission also includes the development of highly professional and skilled human resources for meeting the challenges of development of these applications.

 

Indian supercomputers in the Top 500 Global Supercomputing List:

• The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune, has been ranked at No. 75.
• PARAM Siddhi-AI supercomputer installed at C-DAC, Pune, has been ranked at No. 131.
• Pratyush supercomputer installed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has been ranked at No. 169.
• Mihir supercomputer installed at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting has been ranked at No. 316.

 

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Q1) What is the Digital India programme?

The Digital India programme is an ambitious initiative launched by the Government of India to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The programme aims to leverage the power of digital technologies to bridge the digital divide, enhance government services, promote digital literacy, and stimulate economic growth and innovation across various sectors.

Source: 9 more supercomputers to be added under National Supercomputing Mission, list of four current fastest machines in India