As of August 2025, India has deployed 37 supercomputers with 40 Petaflops capacity, supporting over 10,000 researchers across 200 institutions.
About National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
- NSM is a flagship initiative by the Government of India to empower the country with high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities.
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A petaflop equals one quadrillion (10¹⁵) floating-point operations per second, measuring a supercomputer’s processing speed. |
- Launch and Budget: NSM was launched in April 2015 with an outlay of ₹4,500 crore.
- Aim: To enhance India’s technological prowess in supercomputing, foster research and development (R&D), and support scientific advancements across academia, industry, and government sectors.
- Vision: To achieve self-reliance and global leadership in supercomputing through indigenous design, development, and widespread access.
- Nodal Agencies: Jointly implemented by MeitY and DST through C-DAC, Pune and IISc, Bengaluru.
- Extension: Mission extended till 31 December 2025.
About Supercomputers
Supercomputers are advanced high-performance machines capable of performing trillions of calculations per second, designed to solve complex scientific, engineering, and defence problems beyond the capacity of ordinary computers.
Applications
- Climate and Weather Forecasting: Used for accurate monsoon prediction, disaster management, and long-term climate modelling.
- Drug Discovery and Healthcare: Aid in genome sequencing, vaccine research, and molecular simulations for new medicines.
- Defence and Space Research: Support cryptography, missile simulations, satellite data processing, and space mission planning.
- Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics: Enable deep learning, large-scale data analysis, and autonomous technology development.
Examples
- Fastest Supercomputer (2025): El Capitan at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, which achieved 1.742 exaflops capacity.
- 1 Exaflop = 1,000 Petaflops (“Exa” = 10¹⁸ calculations per second).
- India’s Super Computer: PARAM Rudra, developed under NSM.
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Deployment and Utilisation of Supercomputers under NSM
- System Spread: The systems installed in premier institutions (IISc, IITs, C-DAC, R&D labs) and Tier-II/III cities.
- Efficiency: Most systems function at 85–95% utilisation, completing over 1 crore compute jobs.
- Research Support: Over 10,000 researchers, including 1,700 PhD scholars, have benefited.
- Research Fields: Major applications in drug discovery, disaster management, climate modelling, energy security, astronomy, fluid dynamics, and material sciences.
- Knowledge Output: More than 1,500 research papers published using NSM-supported computing.
- Industry Engagement: Startups and MSMEs are accessing HPC systems to drive innovation in applied research.
Indigenous Technological Achievements under NSM
- Self-Reliance Ecosystem: Established capabilities in design, development, and manufacturing of supercomputing technologies.
- PARAM Rudra is the first fully indigenous supercomputer deployed in 2024 across GMRT Pune, IUAC Delhi, and S.N. Bose Centre Kolkata.
- Indigenous Servers: PARAM Rudra uses “Rudra” HPC servers, designed and manufactured in India, at par with global standards.
- System Software: Development of a complete indigenous system software stack and domain applications.
- Electronics Manufacturing Boost: Local server production strengthening the domestic electronics industry.
- Trinetra Network: High-speed interconnect developed with 40–100 Gbps bandwidth, enhancing communication between supercomputing nodes.
Human Resource Development and Capacity Building
- Research Access Expansion: Researchers in smaller cities now have access to advanced computing infrastructure.
- Training Scale: Over 26,000 individuals trained in HPC and AI through faculty programs, workshops, hackathons, and bootcamps.
- Over 1,500 students completed HPC courses through National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) online courses.
- Nodal Centres: Established at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIT Goa, IIT Palakkad, DTU, and Walchand College of Engineering, offering structured training, internships, and workshops.
- Specialised Programs: C-DAC’s ACTS offers a 6-month free PG Diploma in HPC for SC/ST/Women candidates, focusing on system administration and application development.
- Compact Systems: Development of PARAM Shavak, an energy-efficient desktop supercomputer for educational and research institutions.
Strategic Significance of NSM
- Atmanirbhar Bharat: NSM advances the vision of technological self-reliance in high-performance computing.
- Global Competitiveness: Enhances India’s standing in frontier scientific research and digital economy.
- Inclusive Growth: Expands access to HPC for students, startups, MSMEs, and smaller institutions, ensuring broad-based capacity building.
Conclusion
NSM has transformed India’s HPC landscape by fostering indigenous technology, enabling cutting-edge research, and expanding equitable access. With its achievements in supercomputer deployment, training, and innovation, NSM positions India as a self-reliant global player in high-performance computing and digital scientific advancement
21 Aug 2025
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