Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav launched the India AI Compute Portal and Dataset Platform AI Kosh in New Delhi. The AI Kosh sovereign dataset platform will help develop and train Indian AI models. While through the India AI Compute Portal, researchers, startups and government agencies can access subsidized GPUs for research and testing. The government has fixed the GPU subsidy rate at around Rs 67 per hour. For this, around 10,000 GPUs have been made live.
India’s Vision: Top 5 Tech Nation in AI
Along with this, Ashwini Vaishnav has announced to set up AI data labs in 27 cities under the India AI Mission. These labs will be used for research and development in AI.
Ashwini Vaishnav said that in the next 3-4 years India will develop its own GPU. He said that in the coming time India will be among the top 5 tech countries in areas like AI, semiconductor and deeptech.
India AI Mission: Empowering AI Research with GPUs
In March 2023, the Cabinet approved a budget of Rs 10,371.92 crore for the India AI mission. About 18,693 graphics processing units (GPUs) will be installed with 45% of the funds. This will develop the world’s largest compute infrastructure which will be 9 times larger than the Chinese AI model Deep Seek.
Research companies will be able to access computing resources through all these GPUs. The 10 companies with the lowest bids have been selected for these GPUs. 15,000 GPUs are already available through managed service providers Yotta Data Services, E2E Networks, Tata Communications and AWS.
The Role of Key Industry Players in the India AI Mission
Among the companies contributing to this initiative, Jio Platforms will supply 208 Nvidia H200 GPUs and 104 AMD MI300X GPUs. Additionally, AWS will provide 1,200 lower-end GPUs through CMS Computer, Locus Enterprise Solutions, Orient Technologies, and Vencisco Technologies, including AWS Infertia 2 and Trainium 1 chips. Furthermore, companies like CtrlS Datacenters are expected to contribute by acquiring the remaining 4,000 GPUs.
AWS will supply 1,200 lower-end GPUs
In addition, AWS will supply 1,200 lower-end GPUs through its four managed service providers – CMS Computer, Locus Enterprise Solutions, Orient Technologies and Vencisco Technologies. This includes 800 AWS Infertia 2 and 400 Trainium 1 chips.
Jio Platforms will make 208 Nvidia H200 GPUs and 104 AMD MI300X GPUs available. Also, there is a plan to submit revised lower bids for additional GPUs in the next panel process on April 30.
The Government’s Push to Build Domestic AI Models
The Indian government has also stepped up its efforts to build domestic artificial intelligence models. The government’s drive to acquire new GPUs is aimed at equipping researchers and startups with the computing power needed to build AI models that serve as the core of AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini.
