10,000 GPUs in place over 18-24 months under IndiaAI mission: IT Secretary

Graphics processing units approved as part of the IndiaAI Mission will be available in the upcoming 18-24 months, according to MEITY Secretary S Krishnan. 

On March 7, Union Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the Cabinet has approved the India AI Mission with an outlay of Rs 10,372 crore, aimed at encouraging the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

The Electronics and IT Secretary, said the government will call for industry bids as part of the mission, providing a  viability gap funding for GPU-based computing infrastructure.

The Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme is aimed at supporting infrastructure projects, which are economically justified but fall short of financial viability marginally. As part of Invest India, support under the scheme is available for infrastructure projects wherein private sector sponsors are selected through a process of competitive bidding.

"The entire GPU approved under the mission will be made available in the next 18-24 months," Krishnan told PTI.

Under the India AI mission. supercomputing capacity, which consists of over 10,000 GPUs will be made available to several stakeholders for the creation of an AI ecosystem.

GPU-based servers are in higher demand for their capability of processing data at a higher speed, as compared to CPU-based servers.

The AI supercomputing infrastructure established under the India AI Mission will be accessible to ttartups, academia, researchers and the industry. 

As part of the Mission, an AI marketplace will be designed to offer AI as a service, providing pre-trained models to AI innovators which will act as a one-stop solution for resources critical for AI innovation.

The approved IndiaAI Mission will propel innovation and build domestic capacities to ensure the tech sovereignty of India. It will also create highly skilled employment opportunities to harness the demographic dividend of the country.