Lok Sabha Question No. 1475 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-07-31
Subject: New petaFLOP Supercomputers
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane, Shri Sudheer Gupta

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1475 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 31 ST  JULY, 2024

## NEW petaFLOP SUPERCOMPUTERS

1475.   SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA: SHRI DHAIRYASHEEL SAMBHAJIRAO MANE:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is  going  to  unveil  the  new  18  petaFLOPs  Supercomputer System for weather forecasting institutes this year;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the salient features of the said Supercomputer System;
- (c) the total expenditure incurred in the development of this System and the place where it will be installed;
- (d) the manner in which this new Supercomputer System will help in forecasting weather and predicting calamities like cyclone, etc. in the country; and
- (e) the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  in  acquiring  accuracy  in  weather forecasting?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes. The Government is going to unveil its new 21.1 petaFLOP (PF) Supercomputer this year.
- (b) The details of the High Performance Computer (HPC) systems are as follows:
- (c) The total expenditure sanctioned for the procurement of the HPC system is Rs. 900 crores.The  systems  will  be  installed  at  two  locations:  Indian  Institute  of  Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and National Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida.
- (d) This Augmented HPC capacity will help in advancing the understanding of weather and  climate,  resulting  in  a  better  prediction  and  improved  weather  services  for  the nation. The major benefits include:
- i. Improved weather and climate forecasts at a very high resolution and forecasts of extreme events at block level.
- ii. Carryout  research  to  improve  the  indigenous  dynamical  models  for  better prediction.
- iii. Leveraging the new  HPC  facility to develop  models using the latest technologies like Artificial  Intelligence  (AI)  and  Machine Learning (ML) to improve the last mile services to different stakeholders.
- iv. Improving short, medium, and long-range forecasts for monsoon.
- v. Better forecast of Air Quality, and Fog forecasts for many cities in India
- (e) Improving  the  accuracy  of  weather  forecasts  requires,  enhanced  state-of-the-art observational networks, human resources to undertake R&D for the development of numerical  models  and  finally  the  infrastructure  like  HPC  to  run  the  models  at appropriate  resolutionto  address  the  requirement  of  the  country.  Ministry  is  in continuous  endeavour  of  augmenting  the  observational  and  R&D  infrastructure towards achieving better accuracy in weather forecasting.

| Salient features of the HPC                          | IITM, Pune   | NCMRWF, Noida   |
|------------------------------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|
| CPU Rpeak (PFLOPs)                                   | 11.7 +1.16   | 8.2             |
| CPU nodes (AMD Milan 7643, 2x48c, 2.3GHz, 256GB RAM) | 3021         | 2115            |
| GPU Nodes (AMD Milan 7643+4xA100-80GB)               | 26           | 18              |
| Separate AI/ML System Node                           | 7            | -               |
| GPU Rpeak (PFLOPs)                                   | 1.16         | -               |
| Storage (PB)                                         | 33           | 23              |

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