India's Expanding Supercomputing Ecosystem: National Supercomputing Mission Drives Self-Reliance

India's supercomputing journey began in the early 1990s with 'Param 8000' and has now evolved into a comprehensive national ecosystem through the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), launched in 2015. By September 2026, India has deployed 40 supercomputers with a combined capacity of 68 petaflops (PF). This includes 13 high-end systems with over 1 PF, 12 mid-range systems between 500 TF and 1 PF, and 15 other systems.

The National Supercomputing Mission was launched in April 2015 with an outlay of approximately 4,500 crore rupees. It is jointly operated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, play pivotal roles in advancing this mission. The primary objective of the mission is to increase self-reliance in supercomputing and strengthen High-Performance Computing (HPC) capabilities.

Several indigenous components have been developed under the NSM, most notably the 'Rudra' server series developed by C-DAC. By September 2026, 6,000 Rudra servers have been deployed in Param Rudra supercomputers, with another 1,500 under construction. Furthermore, high-speed interconnect networks with speeds of 100 Gbps and 200 Gbps, indigenous cooling technology, and a complete HPC system software stack have been developed. A 'supercomputing-in-the-box' solution called 'Param Shavak' has also been created for students and researchers.

Supercomputing is being utilized across various national and social applications. These include genomics and drug discovery platforms, urban environmental decision support systems, seismic imaging suites for oil and gas exploration, and flood prediction systems for the Mahanadi river basin. Additionally, it is being used for simulating material science and modeling the spread of forest fires in regions such as the Sikkim Himalayas.

In the field of human resource development, the NSM has supported over 16,000 researchers and more than 2,900 PhD students from over 400 institutions. By September 2026, these systems have executed over 1.5 crore compute jobs and contributed to more than 1,990 research publications. The National Knowledge Network (NKN) serves as the backbone of this entire ecosystem, connecting various institutions via a high-speed network.

Looking toward the future, India aims to build more energy-efficient and reliable systems. The plan is to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and HPC to address challenges in healthcare, agriculture, energy, and scientific research, supporting the vision of 'Viksit Bharat 2047'.