Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched PARAM SHAKTI, a new supercomputing facility hosting the indigenous PARAM RUDRA system at Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).
The system is developed and implemented by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), jointly steered by MeitY and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
PARAM SHAKTI
- Core system: PARAM RUDRA (C-DAC’s indigenous RUDRA server series)
- Peak performance: 3.1 petaflops (≈3.1 quadrillion calculations/sec)
- Make in India: Fully developed and manufactured in India
- Software stack: Open-source AlmaLinux + indigenously developed C-DAC system software
- Data centre features: UPS-backed power, advanced cooling, continuous operations
- Energy efficiency: PUE ~1.2–1.4 (highly efficient)
Why It Matters
- Boost to India’s HPC capacity: Strengthens sovereign computing for science, engineering and AI.
- IndiaAI alignment: Supports multiple compute architectures (not hardware lock-in), improving ecosystem resilience.
- Faster research cycles: Large-scale simulations reduce dependence on long experimental trials.
Research Applications
PARAM SHAKTI will power cutting-edge work across:
- Aerospace engineering & combustion
- Materials science & molecular dynamics
- Climate modelling
- Nuclear sciences
- Drug discovery
Researchers at IIT Madras are already running simulations across multiple length and time scales—from sub-atomic electronic structure to large structural/system-level analyses.
Host Institution & Utilisation
- Host: IIT Madras (selected under NSM for strong interdisciplinary HPC demand)
- Operational since: May 2025
- Utilisation: >80%, indicating strong researcher uptake
- NSM rollout: 37 systems installed nationwide so far; more planned as India advances toward exascale capabilities.
National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
- Launched: 2015
- Objective: Create a grid of 70+ HPC facilities for academia & R&D
- Network: National Supercomputing Grid over the National Knowledge Network (NKN)
- Steering: DST & MeitY
- Implementation: C-DAC, Pune & IISc, Bengaluru
India’s Supercomputers
- PARAM 8000: India’s first supercomputer
- PARAM Pravega: Largest supercomputer in India
- PARAM Shivay: First indigenously built supercomputer
- AIRAWAT: Common compute platform for AI research