The government has moved forward to augment the country's fledgling AI capabilities through finalising a tender that would procure 1000 graphic cards as part of the IndiaAI Mission. This is an important first step towards realising the ambitious vision laid out under the multi-billion rupee national programme targeted at establishing India as a global AI leader.
As per reports, the tender document details a requirement for 1000 graphics processing units or GPUs that would be made available to domestic startups, researchers, institutions and public bodies for furthering their work in artificial intelligence and related fields. A consortium model has been envisioned where qualified service providers can bid jointly for the contract while adhering to key conditions like hosting all computing infrastructure and storing citizen data locally within India.
This marks the initial phase of deploying the 10,000 strong GPU cluster envisaged under the broad IndiaAI Mission announced last year. Successful bidders will need to demonstrate swift provisioning of AI computing resources to handle varying workloads in a timeframe ranging from immediate to weekly. The overarching goal is to establish a robust platform for scaling made-in-India AI initiatives across language models, healthcare, smart agriculture and other national priority sectors.
By taking a first step to inaugurate a 1000 unit GPU network through a competitive bidding dynamic, the government aims to kickstart the active participation of domestic industry while furthering self-reliance in critical technology domains. When fully operational, the national AI infrastructure is expected to provide scalable and cost-effective supercomputing amenities to a wide range of academic, entrepreneurial and social benefit activities.
