AIRAWAT: India's AI Supercomputer for UPSC Exam Preparation - Testbook (2024)

The Genesis of AIRAWAT:

• AIRAWAT is a product of the National Artificial Intelligence Program, an initiative by the Indian Government. It aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'AI for All.'
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has plans to enhance AIRAWAT’s computing power to 1,000 AI Petaflops to cater to the current AI computing needs.

The Implications of AIRAWAT:

• The deployment of AIRAWAT will provide a platform for academia, research labs, industry, and startups to create indigenous AI-enabled products and solutions. These would cater to India-specific challenges and promote self-reliance in the AI domain.

Understanding a Supercomputer:

• Asupercomputeris an ultra-powerful, high-performance computing machine capable of executing complex calculations and processing massive amounts of data at extraordinary speed. It is typically employed for tasks demanding massive computing power.
• The processing speed of a supercomputer is measured in PETAFLOPS (quadrillions of floating-point operations per second).
• The efficiency of a computer’s processor is often gauged using FLOPS (floating point operations per second).
• The countries with the most supercomputers include China, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

India's Journey in Supercomputing:

• India's first supercomputer was PARAM 8000. This was followed by a series of supercomputers like PARAM Shivay, PARAM Shakti, PARAM Brahma, PARAM Yukti, and PARAM Sanganak, installed across various Indian institutions.
• In 2020, India's HPC-AI supercomputer, PARAM Siddhi, ranked 62nd in the list of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputing systems.

The National Supercomputing Mission:

• Launched in 2015, theNational Supercomputing Missionaims to augment research capacity and capabilities in India.
• The mission envisions a supercomputer network by connecting research institutes through the National Knowledge Network (NKN).
• The mission is jointly overseen by the Ministry of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• The implementation of the mission is the responsibility of C-DAC, Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
• The mission is planned in three phases: assembly of the supercomputers (Phase I), production of certain components in India (Phase II), and designing the supercomputer in India (Phase III).