India Joins The Top Supercomputing League Thanks To The AI Supercomputer “AIRAWAT”

The AI supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune, has been ranked 75th in the world. Yesterday, during the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany, the Top 500 Global Supercomputing List’s 61st edition was announced as such. India is now ranked first among all countries using AI supercomputers. The system was installed as part of the Indian government’s national AI program.

According to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s “AI FOR ALL” goal, “We need to make artificial intelligence in India and make artificial intelligence work for India.”


Speaking about this accomplishment, Shri Alkesh Sharma, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said, “Artificial intelligence is the most promising technology in the digital age. Due to its large data availability, robust digital economy, and talented workforce, India has a strong ecosystem and competitive edge for AI. With an emphasis on natural language processing, image progression, pattern recognition, agriculture, medical imaging, education, health care, audio assist, robotics, and providing solutions for strategic industries, India has been working in the field of applied AI. In order to empower individuals and organisations to address the most important issues in society and the economy and improve the globe, India would embrace AI technology, he continued.

“The Proof of Concept (PoC) AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform (AIRAWAT) of 200 AI Petaflops of Mixed Precision Peak Compute Capacity is currently funded by MeitY and implemented by C-DAC, Pune,” said President & CEO of NeGD and MeitY Additional Secretary Shri Abhishek Singh. A combined peak compute of 410 AI petaflops of mixed precision and sustained compute capability of 8.5 petaflops (Rmax) of double precision are produced by integrating the 200 AI petaflop AIRAWAT PoC with the 210 AI petaflop PARAM Siddhi-AI systems. 13 petaflops is the maximum compute speed (double precision, peak). He continued by saying that AIRAWAT is consistent with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision for the country, which calls for enabling technology and artificial intelligence for the benefit of ordinary people and contributing to the socioeconomic development of the country. It should be mentioned that MeitY has already developed a roadmap for expanding AIRAWAT’s mixed precision compute capability to 1,000 AI petaflops in order to meet the demands of the modern AI industry.

Meity Shri Bhuvnesh Kumar, additional secretary, stated: “C-DAC has been a pioneer in HPC and AI since its creation, and this entry in the top 500 list is another feather in C-DAC’s cap. The Ministry has consistently encouraged the use of such larger supercomputing systems to speed up scientific and technological advancements. The C-DAC should make it simple and inexpensive for the Indian population to use such cutting-edge infrastructure.

“In alignment with the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative of the Government of India, ‘AIRAWAT’ will empower the academia, research labs, scientific community, industry, and start-ups to develop indigenous AI-enabled products and solutions, especially for solving India-specific grand challenges and complex real-life problems,” said Ms. Kavita Bhatia, Scientist, G and GC (Emerging Technologies), MeitY. By using this AI infrastructure, it will be possible to realise the goals set forth in the National Programme on AI (NPAI).

Supercomputing is one of C-DAC’s key strengths, according to Ms. Sunita Verma, Scientist, G and GC (R&D in Electronics, IT, AI & ET, Digital Bhashini), MeitY. C-DAC has been conducting research and development in AI and supercomputing for the past three and a half decades. The MeitY has given C-DAC the responsibility of deploying the supercomputers for the Indian scientific and research community under NSM. We are consistently working to meet the highest standards around the world. The government’s Digital India BHASHINI programme will also benefit from the C-DAC Pune system’s installation.

Currently the fastest supercomputer in the nation, it is designed and architected to be on a scalable infrastructure to act as a common computational cloud platform connecting all Centres of Research Excellence in AI, Indian Centres for Transformational AI, academics, research labs, the scientific community, industry, and start-ups. We have started the process of integrating MSMEs and start-ups operating in the country’s AI fields. He praised the personnel at C-DAC, Pune, led by Col. Asheet Kumar Nath, Executive Director, for their outstanding work installing this system and advancing it to the Top 500 List, which had made India proud.