IndiaAI Mission: Govt expected to roll out GPU tender for AI infra in a fortnight

Graphics processing unit is electronic circuit initially designed to accelerate computer graphics and image processing

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is expected to roll out a tender for procuring Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for the artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure in the country in the next fortnight, people familiar with the matter said.

This decision was taken in a review meeting that MeitY held on ongoing projects recently, the people said. Under the Rs 10,732 crore IndiaAI Mission, the government plans to provide viability gap funding for GPU-based computing infrastructure or offer it through a voucher system to startups and researchers.

The forthcoming request for proposal (RFP) will outline the government's initial GPU capacity requirements and the timeline for deployment.

Currently, only one data center in India, Yotta Data Services, has AI GPUs. The RFP is also expected to clarify whether data centres/cloud service providers in other countries will be eligible to participate in the bidding process.

The ministry has also decided to host the second edition of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) from July 3-4. GPAI will focus on compute capacity, foundational models, datasets, application development, and other related topics, the people said.

India is the current lead chair of GPAI, an international initiative established to guide the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence. The initiative has around 29 countries as its members.

The second edition has been renamed as the Global IndiaAI Summit, and will foster dialogue on AI among Global South countries. Leading international AI experts are expected to attend and present their insights on AI and its challenges.

Recently the ministry kicked off the IndiaAI Mission by inviting nominations from 50 institutes, including IITs, NITs, etc., for students who are taking undertaking projects in artificial intelligence.

Selected students who are pursuing B Tech or M Tech programmes from the top 50 National Institutional Ranking Framework-ranked engineering colleges will be offered fellowships to undertake projects in AI.

For B Tech students who are accepted, the ministry will offer Rs 1 lakh across three tranches, said an official communique of the IT ministry addressed to engineering institutes. For M Tech students, the ministry will provide Rs 2 lakh funding in four tranches of Rs 50,000 each.