Key Facts About Supercomputers

  • Definition: Supercomputers combine large numbers of processors or computing nodes that work simultaneously to process massive datasets and solve complex problems much faster than conventional computers. They are also called parallel computers.
  • Measuring Computing Power: Performance is measured in FLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second). 1 teraFLOPS (TF) = one trillion operations per second; 1 petaFLOPS (PF) = one quadrillion operations per second.
  • Exascale Computing: The world's fastest supercomputer achieves around 2.19 exaflops in 2026, equivalent to about 2.19 quintillion calculations per second.
  • Importance and Applications: Enable complex simulations, massive-data processing, and advanced scientific research in climate, healthcare, space, agriculture, and engineering. Key applications include crop-yield prediction, disease-outbreak tracking, drug discovery, and flood-impact forecasting.
  • Demand in India: India generates nearly 20% of the world's data, while AI, weather forecasting, and space research require increasing computing capacity.
  • Government Focus: Expanding access to supercomputing infrastructure to strengthen indigenous capabilities and advance Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

  • Launch and Outlay: Launched in April 2015 with an outlay of about ₹4,500 crore.
  • Nodal Ministries: Jointly steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
  • Core Objective: Build self-reliance in supercomputing, strengthen high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities, and support research, innovation, and societal applications.
  • Implementation: Implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
  • Build Approach: Three concurrent phases — assembly, manufacturing, and design and manufacturing support — to expand infrastructure while developing indigenous capabilities.

Current Status of NSM

  • Indigenous Ecosystem: Building self-reliance across supercomputer design, development, manufacturing, system software, and specialised applications.
  • Planned Capacity: Plans to establish 50 supercomputers with a cumulative capacity of over 123 PF across academic and research institutions.
  • PARAM Series:
  • PARAM 8000 (1991) marked India's entry into indigenous supercomputing with a speed of 1 gigaflop.
  • Later evolved to systems like PARAM Yuva (54 teraflops), supporting weather forecasting and computational fluid dynamics.
  • Current Infrastructure (Sept 2026): 40 supercomputers with combined capacity of 68 PF, including:
  • 13 high-end systems above 1 PF
  • 12 mid-range systems between 500 TF and 1 PF
  • 15 systems below 500 TF
  • All built locally and commissioned across India.
  • Capacity Building: Expanding HPC infrastructure, specialised applications, R&D, and human resource development.
  • Sustainable Development: Contributes to 11 SDGs through flood prediction, forest-fire management, climate modelling, HPC training, indigenous technology development, and research-industry collaboration.

Applications of Supercomputing under NSM

  • Genomics and Drug Discovery: Analyses large molecular datasets; during COVID-19 helped screen drugs and predict side effects.
  • Urban Environment Management: Uses weather and air-pollution models to predict heavy rainfall and pollution levels.
  • Seismic Imaging: Maps subsurface geological structures for oil and gas exploration.
  • Flood Prediction: Early Warning System forecasts floods up to two days in advance; used in the Mahanadi River basin.
  • Forest Fire Prediction: Forest Fire Spread Model combines satellite remote sensing and computational modelling; tested in the Sikkim Himalayas.
  • Materials Science and Computational Chemistry: Simulations of atoms, molecules, and alloys.

Indigenous Achievements under NSM

  • Rudra Series of Servers: Indigenously designed by C-DAC; technology transferred to Indian EMS partners for manufacturing.
  • PARAM Rudra Supercomputers: Built using Rudra servers and indigenous system software stack; support astronomy, material science, atomic physics, and earth sciences. As of Sept 2026, 6,000 Rudra servers deployed, with 1,500 under manufacturing.
  • High-Speed Interconnect Network: Indigenous network with speeds of 100 Gbps and 200 Gbps.
  • Indigenous Cooling Technology: Developed and demonstrated; in deployment stage for power efficiency.
  • HPC System Software: Complete indigenous software stack integrated with supercomputing systems.
  • PARAM Shavak: A 'supercomputing-in-a-box' for students and researchers in engineering colleges and universities.
  • HPC Applications: Deployed for IMD, CWC, CPCB, and Ministry of AYUSH for genomics, drug discovery, etc.

Building India's HPC Workforce

  • Expanding User Base: Supported over 16,000 researchers, including 2,900+ PhD scholars, across 400+ institutions; executed over 1.5 crore compute jobs and contributed to 1,990+ research publications (as of Sept 2026).
  • Awareness and Training: Workshops, hackathons, bootcamps on HPC, AI, ML, DL; faculty development with AICTE.
  • EduHPC and Online Learning: EduHPC Workshop, SWAYAM course under NPTEL, HPC Shiksha Portal.
  • NSM Users Forum: Enables knowledge sharing across sites.
  • National Knowledge Network (NKN): Backbone of India's supercomputing ecosystem, connecting facilities across academic and research institutions.

Conclusion

India's supercomputing journey has progressed from PARAM 8000 (1991) to an increasingly indigenous HPC ecosystem under NSM. The development of PARAM Rudra, Rudra servers, high-speed interconnects, cooling technologies, system software, and national applications demonstrates growing technological capabilities. This supports technological sovereignty, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and sustainable development.