Lok Sabha Question No. 3089 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: Continuous Empanelment for GPU procurement under India AI Mission
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Dr. Bhola Singh, Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION. NO. 3089

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 19.03.2025

## CONTINUOUS EMPANELMENT FOR GPU PROCUREMENT UNDER INDIA AI MISSION

## 3089.   SHRI PRATAP CHANDRA SARANGI: DR. BHOLA SINGH:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the objectives of the continuous empanelment process for Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) procurement under the India AI Mission;
- (b) the details of the partnerships established with academic institutions, startups and industry for AI model development;
- (c) the expected increase in India's AI computing capacity as a result of this initiative; and (d) whether there is a provision for revising GPU rates periodically and if so, the frequency of such revisions?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) to (d):Union Cabinet led by Hon'ble Prime Minister has approved the IndiaAI Mission on 7 th March 2024 ,  a  strategic  initiative  to  establish  a  robust  and  inclusive AI ecosystem that aligns with the country's development goals.

IndiaAI Mission encompasses key pillars of the Al ecosystem including, IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, IndiaAI  Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing and Safe & Trusted AI.

By democratizing access to computing resources, enhancing data quality, nurturing homegrown  AI  expertise,  attracting  top  talent,  fostering  industry  partnerships,  supporting startup ventures, promoting socially impactful AI projects, and emphasizing ethical practices, the mission seeks to foster responsible and inclusive growth within India's AI landscape.

One of the key pillars of the IndiaAI Mission is IndiaAI Compute ,  which aims to deliver Compute  as  a  Service  to  address  India's  dedicated  AI  computing  needs  across  various sectors. The ecosystem comprises AI compute infrastructure of 10,000 or more GPUs.

Towards  this,  IndiaAI  Independent  Business  Division  (IBD)  published  a  Request  for Empanelment (RFE) on August 16, 2024, to empanel AI services on cloud including GPUs. 19  bidders  had  submitted  proposals  to  empanel  their  AI  cloud  services,  out  of  which  10 bidders have been empanelled.

Against  the  target  of  10,000  GPUs  outlined  in  the  IndiaAI  compute  pillar, empanelled bidders have offered 14,517 GPUs at L1 rates .  Further,  an  IndiaAI  Compute  Portal  has been  developed  for  accessing  and  leveraging  the  empanelled  AI  services  on  cloud  at an average  rate  of  Rs.  115  per  GPU  hour  with  Government  providing  support  of  upto 40%.

To  keep  pace  with  the  changes  in  technologies  and  market  prices,  IndiaAI  enables  a continuous  empanelment  process .  IndiaAI  would  renew  the  empanelment  every  quarter inviting  fresh  proposals  from  the  empanelled  agencies  for  discovering  any  revised  rates. Empanelled agencies shall submit a revised financial proposal which can be same or lower than the existing L1 rates. IndiaAI has published the RFE for continuous empanelment on 21 st February, 2025. The last date of submission of proposals is 30 th April 2025. Towards  the  industry  collaboration,  IndiaAI  has signed  MoUs with  Global  technology partners like Meta, IBM, Microsoft in the field of AI & Emerging Technologies. IndiaAI on 30 th January, 2025 had launched a Call for Proposals inviting proposals from startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate on building state-of-the-art foundational  AI  models  trained  on  Indian  datasets .  The  initiative  aims  to  establish indigenous AI models that align with  global standards while addressing unique challenges and opportunities within the Indian context.

In the first month, IndiaAI Mission has received a total of 67 proposals till 15 th February aimed  at  building  India's  foundation  models,  with  contributions  from  both  established startups  and  new  teams  of  researchers  &  academia.  Along  with  funding  support,  a wide range of GPUs have been requested by teams submitting these proposals.

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