Lok Sabha Question No. 2101 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-23
Subject: National Supercomputing Mission
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Vishnu Dayal Ram

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2101

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 23/09/2020

## NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTING MISSION

## 2101. SHRI VISHNU DAYAL RAM:

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

## मंी

- (a)       the details of the aims and objectives of National Supercomputing Mission along with the achievements made there under so far with regard to developing the super computers;
- (b)       whether the Government is also collaborating with the Non-Governmental organisations  in  developing  applications  for  the  super  computer  and  if  so,  the details thereof; and
- (c)        whether  the  Government  has  taken  any  measures  to  develop  high performance computing and skilled  human resource for operating these applications effectively, if so, the details thereof?

## 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 पृ वी वान मंी ( डॉ . हष वधन )

- (a) The National Super-computing Mission (NSM), is jointly steered and implemented by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and M/o Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC,  Pune)  and  Indian  Institute  of  Science  (IISc-Bengaluru)  as  the  implementing partner. The main objectives of the mission include:
1.          Creation  of  state-of-the-art  High  Performance  Computing  (HPC)  facilities  and infrastructure  to  enhance  the  national  capability  to  enable  cutting-edge  research  in various domains in solving grand challenge problems.
2.         Development of HPC Applications for major Science and Engineering domains.
3.          Promote  Research  and  Development  in  HPC  leading  to  next  generation  Exascale computing readiness.

4.          Human Resource Development to handle and spearhead HPC activities in the country.

Under  NSM,  Government  is  building  Multiple  Super-computing  Systems  of various capacities ranging from 650 Teraflops to 3000 Teraflops or 3 Petaflops to 25000 Teraflops  or  25  Petaflops  at  various  academic  and  research  institutes  across  the country in a phased manner.  The achievements made with regard to developing super computers are as follows:

I         The  first  four  systems  from  the  six  systems  approved  under  Phase-I  that  are already installed and made operational include systems at:

-  Indian Institute of Technology at Varanasi
-  Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur
-  Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Pune.
-  Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR)Bengaluru.

The  two  systems  from  Phase  -  I,  which  are  under  operationalization  are installed at

-  Indian Institute of Technology - Hyderabad.
-  Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur.

II         Under Phase-II, eleven Supercomputing systems, all manufactured in India, are under assembly and  installation at various academic and research institutions.

III           Under  Build  Approach,  R&D  C-DAC  is  designing  and  developing  supercomputing subsystems indigenously. Phase-III systems are designed and manufactured in India.

- (b) Applications  development  has  been  undertaken  in  multiple  domains  in consortium mode involving various academic and research organisations. There are no collaborations with non-governmental agencies for applications.
- (c)            Yes Sir. HPC aware human resource development is a key deliverable of this mission.  For  this,  a  framework  for  running  short  term,  medium  term  and  formal education courses has been worked out, in consultation with D/o Higher Education. This includes  design  of  the  course  curriculum  for  running  courses  at  under  graduate,  post graduate  and  post  graduate  diploma  levels.  Multiple  faculty  development  programs, HPC  awareness  workshops,  training  programs  for  application  developers,  with  or without domain expertise, and Hackathons have been conducted to train the faculties and students in various institutions across the country. So far, about 2500 participants have been trained. More such training programs are envisaged for the future, including online training program to overcome the pandemic situation.

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