National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
- Launch Year: 2015 (It operates as a Central Sector Scheme).
- Nodal Ministries: Jointly steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
- Implementing Agencies: C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune) and IISc (Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru).
- Core Objective: To empower academic and research institutions across India by installing supercomputers of varying capacities. These systems are connected via the National Knowledge Network (NKN), a government-backed high-speed network.
- Skill Development: To meet growing research demands, five dedicated High-Performance Computing (HPC) training centares have been established in Pune, Kharagpur, Chennai, Palakkad, and Goa.a
The Three-Phase Indigenization Plan
The mission aims to achieve complete self-reliance in supercomputing through a step-by-step infrastructure plan:
Phase 1
Focused on setting up six supercomputers with components simply assembled in India to begin building domestic capacity.a
Phase 2
Shifted towards local manufacturing and software development, achieving a target of 40% indigenous value.
Phase 3
Aims for full indigenization, designing and manufacturing all key computing components in India to establish a completely self-reliant national HPC facility.
Trinetra: The Indigenous Communication Network
- Definition: Trinetra is a completely indigenous, high-speed communication network developed by C-DAC under the NSM.
- Function: In a supercomputer, data must move incredibly fast between different parts of the machine. Trinetra is designed to manage and enhance this rapid data transfer between computing nodes.
- Implementation: It is being rolled out in three progressive phases: Trinetra-POC, Trinetra-A, and Trinetra-B.
Major Supercomputer Installations under NSM
- PARAM Shivay (2019): This was the very first supercomputer installed under the NSM, located at IIT-BHU, Varanasi.
- PARAM Pravega (2022): Installed at IISc Bengaluru, it is recognized as the largest academic supercomputer in India.
- PARAM Rudra (2024): Three advanced supercomputers were officially commissioned for scientific research in Pune, Delhi, and Kolkata. They are built using India’s first indigenously designed and manufactured HPC servers, known as “Rudra”.
- AIRAWAT: This is India’s dedicated AI Supercomputing Platform. It provides a massive, common computing platform specifically for Artificial Intelligence research. It gained global recognition by ranking 75th at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany.
Name | Speed | Location |
PARAM Shivay | 833 TF | IIT BHU Varanasi |
PARAM Shakti | 1.66 PF | IIT Kharagpur |
PARAM Brahma | 797 TF | IISER Pune |
PARAM Sanganak | 1.66 PF | IIT Kanpur |
PARAM Seva | 833 TF | IIT-H |
PARAM Yukti | 833 TF | JNCASR |
PARAM Smriti | 833 TF | NABI Mohali |
PARAM Utkarsh | 833 TF | C-DAC B |
PARAM Sidhi | 5.26 PF | National AI Facility, CDAC-Pune |
PARAM Pravega | 3.3 PF | IISC |
PARAM Ganga | 1.66 PF | IIT Roorkee |
Current Status and Future Prospects (As of March 2025)
- Deployment: 34 supercomputers have been successfully deployed across premier institutions, including IITs, C-DAC, and institutes in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
- Combined Capacity: The current active network possesses a total computational capacity of 35 Petaflops (PF).
- High Efficiency: These systems are heavily utilized by researchers, with average usage rates exceeding 85%, and some systems operating above 95% efficiency.
- Future Expansion: For the 2024–25 period, an additional 45 Petaflops of computing infrastructure is planned to be integrated using indigenously designed servers.
