PM Modi launches three supercomputers, says tech upgradation should empower the poor

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Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Thursday dedicated three PARAM Rudra Supercomputers and High-Performance Computing systems to the country on Thursday. These systems have been installed in Delhi, Pune, and Kolkata, news agency ANI reported.

"These supercomputers will go a long way in ensuring that India's scientists have access to state-of-the-art facilities," PM Modi said, adding, "The three supercomputers launched today will help in advanced research from physics, earth science, and cosmology."

To instill scientific temperaments in young minds, 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs have been set up in schools, he further informed. Additionally, scholarships for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have been increased, PM Modi said.

The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) was established to provide the country with a robust supercomputing infrastructure to meet the growing computational needs of academia, researchers, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and startups. It is the first initiative of its kind aimed at boosting the country's computing power.

The National Supercomputing Mission is jointly managed by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It is being implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

These supercomputers are equipped with applications catering to domains such as Weather and Climate, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Bioinformatics, and Material Science. The systems offer Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities over Machine Learning and Deep Learning frameworks, along with Compute and Storage as a cloud service.

"In this year's budget, a research fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been announced so that India empowers the 21st century world," PM Modi added.

Highlighting India's achievements in the space sector, PM Modi pointed to the country's recent successes, and said, "India aims to establish the 'Bharatiya Antariksha Station' by 2035."

Last year, the country reached new heights with the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 at the Moon's South Pole and the launch of Aditya-L1, India's first solar mission. These milestones not only strengthened India's position in the global space economy but also bolstered the growth of the private space sector in the country.

India is now preparing for the ambitious Gaganyaan mission, which aims to demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities by launching a crew of astronauts into orbit and safely bringing them back to Earth, with a planned landing in India's sea waters.

The semiconductor sector has also become a crucial component of India's growth, PM Modi noted.

The government has so far approved five semiconductor units in India, with construction already underway at two sites. Work on the remaining three sites will commence soon. The companies have made cumulative investments of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

(With ANI inputs)