Latest news with #Meity
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
AI mission crosses 34K GPU capacity, 3 new startups to help develop models
India has added 15,916 graphics processing units (GPUs) to its national artificial intelligence infrastructure while selecting three new startups to develop indigenous AI models, the government announced on Friday, accelerating efforts to build sovereign AI capabilities that developers can tap into. According to Union minister for electronics and information technology (Meity) Ashwini Vaishnaw, who made the announcement at an event in Delhi, seven companies will provide the additional GPU capacity — which takes the total in the IndiaAI compute portal to 34,333 units ——at subsidised rates of ₹67 per hour, substantially below the average market rate of ₹115 per GPU hour. 'When we began the India AI mission, we had an initial target of 10,000 GPUs, which we at the time thought would be a lot,' Vaishnaw said. 'But we got a promising response from the industry.' The government has already empanelled 18,417 GPUs in the first tranche, with 14,000 units currently accessible through the IndiaAI compute portal that became operational in March. Vaishnaw announced a third round of GPU empanelment will be completed soon, suggesting continued expansion beyond the original targets. The IndiaAI mission centres on offering AI technology access through government-subsidised infrastructure, including a marketplace of sorts for access to compute (which typically requires expensive hardware) and government databases. Among these efforts is the development of indigenous large language models, the technology that underpins AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. The three startups that were chosen from 506 proposals will develop LLMs optimised for India's 22 major languages and hundreds of dialects. The new startups join Sarvam AI, which was chosen in April to build a 120 billion parameter model, in developing indigenous AI systems trained on Indian datasets. The government has loaded 367 datasets onto AI Kosha, a platform supporting AI research across India. Soket AI will develop a 120-billion parameter open-source model optimised for Indian languages, targeting defence, healthcare and education applications. CEO Abhishek Upperwala set a one-year delivery timeline, saying 'India needs a strong base model that others can build on.' Gnani AI is building a 14-billion parameter voice system for real-time, multilingual speech processing. Gan AI focuses on text-to-speech technology with a 70-billion parameter multilingual model targeting 'superhuman' capabilities. The expansion, coupled with the hardware aspect, represents a dramatic scaling from the programme's original ambitions. 'When we began the India AI mission, we had an initial target of 10,000 GPUs, which we at the time thought would be a lot,' Vaishnaw said. 'But we got a promising response from the industry.' The government has already empanelled 18,417 GPUs in the first tranche, with 14,000 units currently accessible through the IndiaAI compute portal that became operational in March 2025. 'Common compute is a very important part of the principle of democratising technology,' Vaishnaw said. 'Technology should not be left in the hands of a few.' Rather than building government data centres, officials opted to empanel private providers who invest in the infrastructure while receiving 40% subsidies. The strategy yielded bids already more than 40% below prevailing market rates before the additional subsidy was applied. 'The government thought building data centres was going to take longer, so they decided to empanel service providers and private sector players who will invest in the compute infrastructure,' a senior official told HT. The subsidised pricing represents a significant departure from international GPU markets, where Nvidia H100 hourly rates range from $2.99 to $9.98 across major cloud providers in 2025, according to estimates. The seven newly empanelled companies are Cyfuture India, Ishan Infotech, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Netmagic IT Services, Sify Digital Services, Vensysco Technologies, and Yotta Data Services. Cyfuture emerged as the dominant supplier, offering multiple chip types including Nvidia's H100 and AMD's MI300X processors, while Yotta Data Services provides access to Nvidia's latest B200 chips.
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
India likely to possess 46K graphics processing units in a fortnight
Results for the second round of GPU bidding were announced on Friday by Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw New Delhi Listen to This Article India is expected to have around 46,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) in place by June 10, upon conclusion of the third round of bidding under the IndiaAI Mission, government officials said. After the third round of the bidding, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) will shift to a continuous empanelment process. Under this system, any company willing to match the lowest bid or per-hour cost for GPUs discovered during the first round of bidding will be eligible to supply these high-performance computing machines to participants in the ₹10,372 crore IndiaAI Mission, the officials said.
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Business Standard
18-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Semicon 2.0: India eyes 5% slice of global semiconductor chip pie by 2030
A senior official in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) said: "We have just begun and have a long road ahead Surajeet Das Gupta New Delhi Listen to This Article The central government is aiming for a 5 per cent share of global semiconductor chip production by the end of 2030 as it readies for the next phase of the India Semiconductor Mission — Semicon 2.0. It has already committed disbursements from the $10 billion it earlier announced as incentives for prospective semiconductor fabrication (fab) players, as well as Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) and Assembly, Testing, Marking, and Packaging (ATMP) companies. As many as five projects are already eligible under the scheme. A senior official in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) said: 'We have just
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Business Standard
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Cyberwarfare signs: Govt on high alert, urges industry to boost security
Large groups, MSMEs asked to step up defences Premium New Delhi Listen to This Article The government is on high alert amid the threat of a cyberwarfare against Indian digital establishments and resources. Even as the India-Pakistan tension has de-escalated, the government is watching out for international ransomware groups and state-backed threat actors, who could step up their attempts to attack in the coming days and weeks, sources told Business Standard. To take the threat head on, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) is reaching out to software firms, cybersecurity experts, chief information officers at large industrial groups, as well as micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), sources said. A new set of
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Business Standard
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Electronic parts PLI: Govt may clear 1st lot of eligible players in a month
The ministry is also working on revamping the design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme, which is part of the semiconductor mission, and has so far had a subdued response Surajeet Das Gupta New Delhi Listen to This Article The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) is planning to clear the first lot of eligible players under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for electronic components within a month. Under the much-awaited scheme, the government has earmarked ₹22,919 crore as incentives for a period of six years. Meity expects over 150 companies, across various segments of electronic components from PCBs, mechanics and displays, to camera modules among others, will be eligible under the scheme when it closes. 'We will start announcing eligible players under the scheme in phases in a month, and expect over 150 companies to be part
