Lok Sabha Question No. 1679 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-13
Subject: Development of Supercomputers
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: SANTOSH AHLAWAT

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTIONI NO.1679

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 13.02.2019

## DEVELOPMENT OF SUPERCOMPUTERS

## 1679. SHRIMATI SANTOSH AHLAWAT:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:(a) whether the Government has inked a deal with foreign corporation to procure supercomputers for academic and research institutions, if so, the details thereof along with the financial details thereof;

- (b)  whether the Government is planning to launch broadband services readiness index for States, if so, the details thereof along with the status of  National Digital Communication Policy;
- (c)    whether  the  Government has held discussions with WhatsApp officials for tracing the origins of misinformation spread through its messaging platform; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the strategy of the Government in case WhatsApp express its inability to trace the origin of misinformation.

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI S.S. AHLUWALIA)

(a):  Yes, Sir.   C-DAC has made contract with M/s ATOS, a French multinational company as partner, after  undergoing  a  tender  process,  for    supply  of  subsystems  required  for  supercomputers  to  be developed and installed by C-DAC  at  academic  and  research  institutions under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).

C-DAC is building systems in phased manner. In Phase-1 the subsystems supplied by M/s ATOS will be assembled in India and in Phase-2 the subsystems will be manufactured in India by M/s ATOS at manufacturing facility is at Chennai. In Phase-3, the subsystems will be designed indigenously by CDAC and manufactured in India with the help of industry partners. The work for all three phases has started simultaneously. The System Software stack is indigenously developed by C-DAC for all three phases.

The order value for Phase-1 subsystems of three supercomputers (2.6 PF compute capacity), including Data Center cost, is Rs. 95.00 Crores plus GST. A rate contract for Phase-2 supply of subsystems (10PF compute  capacity)  for  a  period  of  3  years  is  awarded  to  M/s  ATOS,  with  a  maximum  value  of  Rs. 273.95 Crores plus applicable Taxes.

- (b):    Yes,  Sir.  The  National  Digital  Communication  Policy  (NDCP)  -  2018  has  been  notified  in  the Gazette  of  India  on  22 nd October  2018  with  a  vision  to  support  India's  transition  to  a  digitally

empowered economy and society. In order to attract investments and to address RoW challenges, NDCP aims to create broadband readiness index for States/UTs as one of its strategies.

(c)  and  (d):    Yes,  Sir.  The  Government  had  held  discussion  with  WhatsApp  officials  for  tracing  the origin of identified misinformation spread through its messaging platform.

Government has also proposed to amend the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 notified under section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 which, inter alia, proposes for tracing of origin of information. The draft of the proposed amendments has been uploaded on Ministry website inviting public comments.

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