Lok Sabha Question No. 3958 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-19
Subject: Development of Supercomputing and Quantum Computing
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Jayant Sinha, P.P. Chaudhary, Arjunlal Meena

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3958 ANSWERED ON 19/03/2021

## DEVELOPMENT OF SUPERCOMPUTING AND QUANTUM COMPUTING

3958.   SHRI JAYANT SINHA:

SHRI P.P. CHAUDHARY: SHRI ARJUN LAL MEENA:

Will  the  Minister  of  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY वान और ौयोगक मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  measures  taken  to  expand  India's  interests  in  areas  of advanced supercomputing and quantum computing;
- whether India has been developing indigenous quantum computers and if
- (b) so, the details thereof;
- (c)
- the details of institutions/centres housing supercomputers as of now;
- whether the ministry has planned to expand the number of supercomputers
- (d) and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the details of funds allocated and utilized to develop and provide the supercomputing facility for research and other allied areas?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE; MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; AND MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

वाय और परवार कयाण मंी , वान और ौयोगक मंी और पृवी वान मंी (डॉ . हष वधन)

- (a)      The  National  Supercomputing  Mission  (NSM)  is  a  National  Mission  jointly funded by Department  of Science  and Technology  (DST) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The Mission is totally of Rs 4500 crore and it is for 7 years. The implementing partners in this Mission are Indian Institute  of  Science  (IISc)-Bengaluru  and  Centre  for  Development  of  Advanced Computing  (C-DAC)-Pune.  The  DST  share  of  funding  is  Rs  2740  crore  whereas MeitY share would be Rs 1760 crore.

Under NSM, a Supercomputing infrastructure is being created with multiple facilities  at  various  academic  and  Research  &  Development  institutes  and National Laboratories across the country. The program is working on creation of indigenous hardware and software ecosystem required for building Supercomputers.

Several  applications  of  national  interest  have  been  initiated  in  the  area  of weather  forecasting,  flood  forecasting,  Bio  informatics  &  drug  Development platform, Computational Chemistry, Computational Physics & Materials Science, CFD & other Engineering area, Geo exploration etc.

Several  R&D  projects  have  been  initiated  for  building  algorithms  that  can scale up to exascale systems or software or libraries in open source for exascale systems etc.

Under  Manpower  Development  we  are  committed  to  train  about  20,000 manpower, with Computer domain or other science domain, in various areas of Supercomputing.

- (b)    Research in the area of Quantum communication, superconducting circuits, Quantum  algorithms,  etc.  is  initiated  at  various  institutes  in  the  country  like DRDO,  TIFR,  IISER,  etc.  The  DST  has  developed  a  new  directed  research programme on 'Quantum Information Science and Technology (QuST)' aimed at development and demonstration of quantum computers, quantum communication & cryptography, development of quantum-enhanced and inspired technology and development  of  advanced  mathematical  quantum  techniques,  algorithms  and theory  of  quantum  information  systems.  In  addition,  two  multi-institutional projects supported by MeitY are initiated in this area that includes i) A Centre of Excellence in Quantum Technology at C-DAC, IISc and Raman Research Institute, an Aided Institute of DST; and ii) Design and development of Quantum Computing Toolkit including a Quantum Simulator at C-DAC, IISc and IIT-Roorkee.
- (c)     Under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), till now 6 Supercomputers are established which are as follows:

|   1. | IIT-BHU, Varanasi                                                                 | 833 TF                                           |
|------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|
|    2 | IISER, Pune                                                                       | 800 TF                                           |
|    3 | IIT Kharagpur                                                                     | 1.63 PF                                          |
|    4 | JNCASR, Bangalore                                                                 | 833 TF                                           |
|    5 | IIT Kanpur                                                                        | 1.63 PF                                          |
|    6 | National Facility for AI, C-DAC, Pune position in Top 500 Supercomputers globally | 5.27 PF (This system has 62nd in November, 2020) |

Apart from the above Supercomputers under NSM, various other institutes have  supercomputers. Notable  among these  are  IITM  Pune,  NCMRWF Delhi,  IIT Delhi, NARL, IIT Bombay, etc.

- (d)     Under NSM, another 9 Supercomputers are in the process of establishment at following institutes:

|   1. | IIT Hyderabad           | 833 TF   |
|------|-------------------------|----------|
|    2 | IISc, Bangalore         | 3 PF     |
|    3 | IIT Guwahati            | 833 TF   |
|    4 | NIT Tiruchirapalli      | 833 TF   |
|    5 | IIT Gandhinagar         | 833 TF   |
|    6 | IIT Roorkee             | 1.63 PF  |
|    7 | NABI Mohali, a DBT AI   | 833 TF   |
|    8 | C-DAC, B'luru for MSMEs | 833 TF   |
|    9 | IIT Mandi               | 833 TF   |

Three more Large Supercomputers each with 3PF will be established at IIT Mumbai,  IIT  Chennai  and  Inter  University  Accelerator  Centre,  New  Delhi.  One National  Supercomputing  facility  of  20PF  at  C-DAC,  Pune  is  planned  to  be established.

- (e)     Under NSM, both MeitY and DST have provided funds with cumulative total of Rs 1060 crore till date to develop and provide the supercomputing facility for research and other allied areas like application developments, training, etc. As on date, funds equivalent to Rs 531 crores are utilized and commitments of Rs 428 crore on various activities in progress including purchase orders. The delivery of the systems suffered during the lock-down during the Peak of COVID Pandemic.

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