AIRAWAT: India’s AI Powerhouse

Introduction

The world is advancing through an AI evolution and you will be proud to know that India is emerging as a global AI powerhouse. In this glorious journey, India’s one of the most notable and proud possessions is AIRAWAT!

Yes, you read it right. According to Indian mythology, AIRAWAT (aka AIRAVAT) is the king of elephants representing the pride and honor of the deity king Indra. Similarly, the AIRAWAT supercomputer (AI-based) is one of the most significant achievements of India in the race to become a global AI superpower.  It’s an AI-based cloud computing infrastructure that has been materialized by the proposal of  NITI Ayog in the quest of becoming a $5 trillion economy.

Through this blog, let’s uncover the facts and visions related to AIRAWAT and try to understand how it is propelling India to the forefront of the AI revolution.

“We need to make artificial intelligence in India and artificial intelligence work for India”

Interesting facts you should know about AIRAWAT!

• AIRAWAT is an acronym for Artificial Intelligence Research, Analytics, and Knowledge Assimilation Platform.
• International SuperComputing Conference (2023), Germany has recognized India’s AI Supercomputer AIRAWAT and positioned it as the 75th among the most powerful ones in the world.
• The AI supercomputer is installed at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune.
• AIRAWAT PSAI is India’s largest as well as fastest AI supercomputing system, with a staggering speed of 13,170 teraflops (Rpeak).
• AIRAWAT has been manufactured by Netweb Technologies and its operating system is Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS.
• The AI supercomputer- AIRAWAT runs on AMD EPYC 7742 64C 2.25GHz processor with 81,344 cores.

The Birth of AIRAWAT

In the ambition of building a $5 trillion economy, NITI Aayog’s vision turned into AIRAWAT, an AI-based cloud computing infrastructure! The National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (NSAI) established the groundwork by identifying challenges to AI progress in India. You will be amazed to know that NITI Aayog’s proposals gave rise to AIRAWAT, a platform designed to thrust India into the global AI map.

This AI powerhouse aspires to drive research and development while resolving real-world concerns in industries as well as governments. Recognizing the urgency to move away from reliance on external providers, AIRAWAT pledges customized computing and infrastructure adapted to India’s specific needs.

India’s AI potential is enormous! Did you know it is capable of increasing the national growth rate by 1.3% and putting $957 billion into the Indian economy by 2035?

Despite this, a shortage of access to specialized computing and storage resources has slowed the growth. AIRAWAT strides in as an essential solution, filling the gap with innovative AI-first compute infrastructure.

NITI Aayog’s Approach Paper on ‘AIRAWAT – AI Specific Cloud Computing Infrastructure’ states that,

“The Government’s focus on digitalization and impressive strides under Digital India has enabled the generation of a large quantum of digital data. However, access to specialized computing and storage facilities would be crucial to unlock the economic potential of AI.”

Mission of AIRAWAT

The purpose of developing AIRAWAT aligns with the broader goals of the Government of India’s Nation Program on Artificial Intelligence. 

To democratize access to AI infrastructure

AIRAWAT has a mission to make the power of high-performance computing easily accessible to a wide range of users. These users refer to researchers, academicians and Indian startups, established businesses.

This way AIRAWAT AIms to democratize AI by offering easy access as well as customized computer resources to encourage innovation and collaboration in the AI community by reducing the requirement of expensive infrastructure.

To empower research and development

AIRAWAT is designed while keeping in mind the need of a powerful platform that researchers can use to solve complex AI research problems. Its advanced features allow researchers to train and test complex AI models to accelerate the pace of innovation in the AI field.

AIRAWAT’s mission is to enable researchers, entrepreneurs, and government institutions to realize the disruptive capabilities of AI through harnessing modern cloud computing technologies.

To encourage made-in-India tag

AIRAWAT acts as the key driver of the initiatives of Atmanirbhar Bharat in the field of AI. Its mission is to reduce the dependence on foreign technologies by helping us with domestic research and development coupled with state-of-the-art infrastructure.

To build an AI-driven future

In order to contribute to the advancement of indigenous AI applications across different sectors incorporating weather forecasts, climate change prediction, and drug discovery, AIRAWAT is empowering research and development within the country.

AIRAWAT intends to innovate AI solutions that solve major social needs in fields such as healthcare, agriculture, weather forecasting, as well as financial inclusion.

This will lead to economic and societal benefits in India. Accenture’s research finds that,

“AI has the potential to raise India’s annual growth rate by 1.3 percentage points and add $957 billion to its economy in 2035.”

Current Challenges in AI Compute Capacity in India

Though India is actively indulging in boosting the capabilities of AI, there are several challenges in the AI computing scenario of India.

Infrastructure

Lack of high-performance computing  resources:

In order to train large AI models it requires huge computational power that is expensive and hence not accessible to many academicians and small startups.

The infrastructure of the data center:

In order to support huge AI workloads, a proper physical infrastructure is required. This infrastructure incorporates centralized data centers and cooling systems which are developing in India. We also lack specialized computing and storage facilities that are considered the backbone of AI.

Limitations of Internet connections:

To transfer data efficiently and get access to clouds, reliable and high-speed internet connection across India is important.

Talent and expertise

Lack of skilled professionals:

Currently, there is a huge gap between the requirements of skilled AI professionals including data scientists, and data engineers, and the available skilled people along with the required expertise.

Shortage of expertise:

Optimizing AI workloads on the existing computing system requires specialized expertise and knowledge which is not easily accessible in India right now.

Data and regulatory framework

Concerns and regulations about data privacy:

Strict regulations on data privacy restrict utilization and access to data resources. This hinders the process of training large AI models.

Lack of high-quality data:

The quantity of high-quality labeled data required for training AI models is limited in Indian data storage.

Other factors

High cost:

The cost of accessing high-performance AI computing resources like GPUs is high.  The expensive cost acts as a barrier for small research institutions.

 Lack of awareness:

Currently, there is a lack of awareness of the groundbreaking use cases of AI computing systems across numerous sectors. Spreading awareness and boosting the demand for investing in AI computing resources is necessary.

India is actively taking steps to address these challenges. In the words of Shri Alkesh Sharma, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY),

“India has a strong ecosystem and competitive advantage for AI due to its massive data availability, strong digital economy, and skilled workforce. India has been working in Applied AI with a focus on Natural Language Processing, Image processing, Pattern Recognition, Agriculture, Medical Imaging, Education, Health Care, Audio assistance, Robotics, and developing solutions for the strategic sectors.”

How AIRAWAT is addressing these current challenges

Infrastructure

Provides access to required resources:

AIRAWAT allows you to access numerous high-performance computing resources such as GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and CPUs (Central Processing Units). This successfully caters to the needs of researchers, small businesses, startups, and industry players to train and use large AI models. This way the entry barrier to AI computing for many candidates has become low.

Contributes to Data center infrastructure:

AIRAWAT being a national platform, is designed to contribute to the growth of AI-specific data center infrastructure in India, which incorporates cooling systems, power management, and other facilities.

Improved network connectivity:

AIRAWAT also makes way for improved internet connections across India by establishing high-speed networks that connect data centers and research institutions.

Talent and expertise

Democratizing access to resources:

AIRAWAT helps make a large pool of AI professionals in our country equipped with high-level resources to get trained. This will eventually increase the skilled workforce in the future.

Promoting collaboration:

The AI supercomputer enhances the collaboration among researchers, businesses, academicians, and AI professionals in the industry by providing all with the same knowledge. This will help develop expertise in AI optimization and further innovations.

Data and regulatory framework

Enabling secure data storage:

AIRAWAT fosters strict data security and privacy regulations so that researchers and AI professionals get a trusted and secure environment to work with sensitive data along with following the legal requirements.

Supporting data labeling and curating:

AIRAWAT has the potential to build a national archive of high-quality labeled data that can address issues of data scarcity for certain use cases.

Other factors

Reduced cost of AI resources:

AIRAWAT provides shared access to in-demand high-quality resources. This has reduced the high cost of accessing high-performance computing resources for upcoming projects. This has made the entry barrier for small players with tight budgets low.

Increased awareness:

It acts as a live example of the disruptive capabilities of AI which now encourages various sectors to adopt compute resources and invest in physical infrastructure for efficient work processes.

AIRAWAT’s role in India’s AI revolution

The accomplishment of AIRAWAT is a result of coordinated government efforts, strategic partnerships, and technological prowess. Partnering with top academic institutions, industry players, giant companies, startups focusing on the AI revolution, and initiatives like Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) have played a crucial role in driving India’s AI revolution ahead and establishing the stepping stone of India’s indigenous AI innovation.  With the support of an ecosystem that encourages AI innovation, India can open up new avenues for development and progress.

Role of AIRAWAT in India’s AI agenda

The road ahead of India as it sets out to become a leader in AI is paved with enormous potential and hitherto unheard-of prospects. India, with AIRAWAT at the forefront, is well-positioned to leverage AI’s transformative potential to tackle urgent societal issues, propel economic expansion, and solidify its standing as a major player in the field. With sustained investments, strategic partnerships, and resolute dedication, India is poised to write the next chapter in the history of artificial intelligence.

AIRAWAT plays a pivotal role in:

• bolstering the computational capability of AI in India by offering scalable and easily accessible resources.
• creating a workforce with the necessary skills and expertise and encouraging cooperation within the AI ecosystem.
• addressing privacy issues of sensitive data and allowing data to be used for AI development.
• lowering the entry barrier to AI adoption and encouraging a broader range of industries to use it.

Conclusion

We all know how AI and cloud computing together have been changing our old habits. The blended forms of AI and cloud computing like Alexa, Siri, and Google Home have modernized our traditional way of living. Not only that, the merging the AI and cloud computing has helped businesses streamline operations, reducing expenditures, making operations more efficient, making insights-driven decisions, and adopting results-focused strategies.

India, because of the lack of necessary infrastructure, was dependent on foreign AI computing service models. To replace this issue with an indigenous large AI model that will specifically address Indian challenges, AIRAWAT has been developed.

AIRAWAT is not just a supercomputer, It represents the government’s overall goal of democratizing, empowering, and advancing the country’s AI developments for a more promising AI-driven future.

NOTE: It should be noted, that while AIRAWAT is still in its early stages, it has great potential to change India’s AI environment and tackle the issues you brought into focus.

FAQs

1. What is the full form of AIRAWAT?

The full form of AIRAWAT is Artificial Intelligence Research, Analytics, and Knowledge Assimilation Platform.

2. What is the rank of AIRAWAT supercomputer?

India’s AI supercomputer AIRAWAT has ranked 75th in the top 500 supercomputing list globally. It was declared at the International Supercomputing Conference 2023 in Germany. 

3. What AIRAWAT can do?

AIRAWAT can enable researchers, AI professionals, academicians, startups, businesses, research labs, and the Government to collaborate and develop AI-powered solutions that will specifically cater to Indian needs and challenges.