Govt to create more compute capacity based on requirement: IT Secretary Krishnan

The government is looking at creating more "compute capacity" through viability gap funding after building high-tech capability under the ₹10,372-crore India AI mission, Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday.

Addressing the TechCircle's annual event Tech Outcomes 2024, Krishnan said that India AI Mission has an outlay of about ₹10,372 crore of which more than ₹4,500 crore is intended for compute capacity. "There is a possibility that we would actually support more compute capacity being created on the viability gap funding," Krishnan said.

The government has invited bids for the empanelment of entities for providing artificial intelligence services on the cloud under the India AI mission. Under the IndiaAI Mission, supercomputing capacity, comprising over 10,000 GPUs, will be made available to various stakeholders for creating an artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem.

The rapid development of AI across the globe has led to an increase in demand for GPU-based servers, as they can process data at a higher speed compared to CPU-based servers. Krishnan said that the vision is to create capacity in a public-private partnership model.

"There are two models that we are attempting. The first one has already launched the RFPs out there, and that is more a voucher base approach where we are asking people who have already created AI compute capacity to make it available to innovators, startups and MSMEs and academic institutions at a subsidised price," he said.

Under the India AI mission, the government has proposed to pay up to 50 per cent of the cost by giving vouchers to various institutions and others.

He said that the compute capacity is also being created under National Supercomputer Mission (NSM) that will mainly meet public sector requirements.

A majority of Indian organisations are still at a nascent stage when it comes to scaling AI solutions, with 75 per cent of them having their AI strategy at the proof of concept (PoC) level, Achyuta Ghosh. Head Of Research – Nasscom, said at the event. 

To create a shift from AI-ready to AI-first organisations, Indian enterprises will need to move beyond PoCs to scale AI implementations, he said, adding that to boost AI adoption, Indian companies need the right talent, consistent leadership oversight, and AI centres of excellence (CoEs) to scale AI initiatives, coupled with a strong government support..

Among the latest factors driving the demand for data centre space are AI, ML and IoT, said Raju Vegesna, the Chairman and Managing Director of Sify Technologies, a company that offers data center and colocation services, a speaker at the event.

"The synergy between AI/ML and IoT in India is amplifying the demand for data centre space. With the proliferation of IoT devices, vast amounts of data are generated, necessitating robust infrastructure for storage and processing. AI and ML algorithms further drive this demand by requiring massive computational power for analysis and insights," said Vegesna.

Tech Outcomes 2024, TechCircle's annual event held in Chennai from September 20-21, which saw Chief information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Technology Officers (CTO), as well as policy experts, and analysts from across the country, has offered valuable sessions, panel discussions and workshops to provide insights into the current state of technology adoption and AI transformation and explores how organizations are successfully harnessing technology to achieve their goals.