India's digital infrastructure struggling to keep pace with global standards
What's the story
India's digital infrastructure currently accounts for less than 2% of the world's total capacity, according to Vishal Dhupar, MD of NVIDIA Asia South. This limitation hampers India's research contributions, which also hover around the same percentage. Speaking at StartUp Mahakumbh, Dhupar emphasized that Indian researchers abroad contribute approximately 12% to global research, thanks to superior access to digital infrastructure. He underscored a direct link between India's modest research output and its restricted computing capabilities.
Usage
The rising global appetite for GPU-based servers
The global tech industry is witnessing a soaring demand for GPU-based servers and accelerated computing, due to their superior data processing speeds compared to CPU-based servers. This trend has led to a worldwide shortage of GPUs. NVIDIA, holding an impressive 88% market share, is grappling with a 12-18 month delay in delivering GPUs due to this overwhelming demand. Dhupar pointed out that this surge is fueled by the fierce competition among global companies for AI development.
Goal
India's AI mission: A step toward strengthening digital infrastructure
The Indian government has greenlit the India AI Mission with an allocation of Rs. 10,372 crore over five years, aimed at fostering AI development nationwide. The mission plans to provide more than 10,000 GPUs to establish a robust AI ecosystem. Dhupar expressed enthusiasm for this initiative and stressed that infrastructure is pivotal for research advancement. He suggested that an enhanced computing infrastructure could potentially inject $1 trillion into the economy.
Steps
Indian corporations partner with NVIDIA for infrastructure enhancement
Several prominent Indian corporations such as Reliance Industries, Tata, Yotta, and Netweb have joined forces with NVIDIA, in a bid to construct and implement GPU-based servers across India. Dhupar disclosed that the equipment ordered by Yotta has landed in India and is set for deployment soon. Yotta Data Services, a data center company owned by the Hiranandani Group, aims to install more than 20,400 NVIDIA GPU-based supercomputers by June this year.