India Greenlights $730 Million Supercomputing Grid

Free Karma · Apr 3, 2015

India Greenlights $730 Million Supercomputing Grid

The Indian government has approved a seven-year supercomputing program worth $730 million (Rs. 4,500-crore) intended to restore the nationâ€™s status as a world-class computing power.

The prime mandate of the National Supercomputing Mission, first revealed last October, is the construction of a vast supercomputing grid connecting academic and R&D institutions and select departments and ministries. The National Supercomputing grid will be comprised of more than 70 geographically-distributed high-performance computing centers linked over a high-speed network, the National Knowledge Network (NKN).

According to an official press statement from Indiaâ€™s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the mission involves both capacity and capability machines. Earlier reports stated that the first order of business would be raising Indiaâ€™s supercomputing ranking by standing up three petascale supercomputers, some 40-times faster than the countryâ€™s current fastest.

Once title-holder to the worldâ€™s fourth-fastest supercomputer (â€œEkaâ€) in 2007, India has not kept up its supercomputing investment. Its current top system, a 719-teraflops IBM/Lenovo iDataPlex installed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, has slid from 36th to 71st position since it making its TOP500 debut in 2013. And the nationâ€™s second-fastest number-cruncher, the 388-teraflops PARAM Yuva II, has gone from 131 to 69 in the same timeframe.

The nationâ€™s first petascale systems would â€œboost high-performance computing for India several fold,â€ according to K VijayRaghavan, secretary, science and technology department. The large-scale cyberinfrastructure will support applications of national relevance, including grand challenge problems, advanced research and development and home-grown Indian technologies.

â€œThe Mission implementation would bring supercomputing within the reach of the large Scientific & Technology community in the country,â€ remarked the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. â€œCurrently, in the top Supercomputing machines in the world, a major share is taken from advanced countries such as the US, Japan, China and the European Union (EU). The mission envisages India to be in the select league of such nations. To provide continuity in maintaining a lead in supercomputing, the Mission also includes advanced R&D. This will create requisite expertise to build state-of-the-art next generation supercomputing. The Mission supports the governmentâ€™s vision of â€œDigital Indiaâ€ and â€œMake in Indiaâ€ initiatives.â€

The program will be jointly managed by the Department of Science and Technology and Department of Electronics and Information Technology and implemented through two of Indiaâ€™s primary science organizations: the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
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Here is the actual press release from the govt:
â€œNational Supercomputing Mission (NSM): Building Capacity and Capabilityâ€ to be jointly implemented by the Department of Science and Technology and Department of Electronics and Information Technology

National Supercomputing Mission (NSM): Building Capacity and Capabilityâ€ to be jointly implemented by the Department of Science and Technology and Department of Electronics and Information Technology

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the launch of the National Supercomputing Mission. This is a visionary program to enable India to leapfrog to the league of world class computing power nations. The Mission would be implemented and steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) at an estimated cost of Rs.4500 crore over a period of seven years.

The Mission envisages empowering our national academic and R&D institutions spread over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 high-performance computing 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 develop applications of national relevance. The Mission also includes development of highly professional High Performance Computing (HPC) aware human resource for meeting challenges of development of these applications.

The Mission implementation would bring supercomputing within the reach of the large Scientific & Technology community in the country; will provide significant qualitative and quantitative improvement in R&D and higher education in the disciplines of Science & Technology; and enable the country with a capacity of solving multi-disciplinary grand challenge problems. Currently, in the top Supercomputing machines in the world, a major share is taken from advanced countries such as the US, Japan, China and the European Union (EU). The mission envisages India to be in the select league of such nations. To provide continuity in maintaining a lead in supercomputing, the Mission also includes advanced R&D. This will create requisite expertise to build state-of-the-art next generation supercomputing. The Mission supports the governmentâ€™s vision of â€œDigital Indiaâ€ and â€œMake in Indiaâ€ initiatives.

The Mission has been conceptualized and evolved keeping in view the ever increasing computing demand of the scientific and academic community in the country, international technology trends and roadmaps of leading countries in the area, strategic importance and emergence of supercomputing as a benchmark for Scientific & Technological advancements. Two key departments of the Government of India, DeitY and DST will be implementing the mission jointly through two leading organizations. These are the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

Background:

World-wide supercomputing facilities have enabled countries in their S&T capabilities in areas such as designing vehicles, aeroplanes, massive structures like high rise buildings and bridges, infrastructure , discovery of new life saving drugs, discovery and extraction of new energy sources including oil, natural gas etc. Over the years, supercomputers have benefitted mankind in several ways. Weather prediction has reached accuracy of forecast as well as real time tracking of natural phenomenon. Timely warning of cyclones in the recent past have saved many lives and property. The Mission aims to further such capabilities beyond current levels.
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Srinivas_K · Apr 3, 2015

Nice initiative !

India Greenlights $730 Million Supercomputing Grid

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India Greenlights $730 Million Supercomputing Grid

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