India is in consultation with experts to make its own GPUs, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Railways, Information and Broadcasting, Electronics and Information Technology.
Speaking at an event in New Delhi, he also said, "The IndiaAI mission that was started one year ago, has made 14,000 GPUs available now. To simplify, a GPU is a computer chip that quickly creates images and videos. To give an idea, our biggest super computer is 650 gpu and here it's 14,000 GPUs. Every quarter, we will add more compute and this willl create the opportunity for everybody."
The minister further highlighted that India has received 67 applications to build its foundational model. Of these, the country will pick up three or five applications, he informed.
"A significant part of the computer facility available will be used to develop India's own foundational model," he said.
He further added that the way India sent a mission on the moon at a fraction of the cost that the developed world did, India will make a foundational model at the same cost.
He also mentioned that the country is focussing extensively on making its own chips.
The minister further added that the country is creating foundational courses in data and AI for school children. "Like what we did in semiconductors, where several universities have designs for semiconductors, around 150 universities will get foundational tools to do research on AI," he added.
Vaishnaw was speaking at an event in New Delhi which was celebrating one year of the IndiaAI mission. The event saw the launch of several initiates by the government including AI Kosha - IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Compute Portal for accessing GPUs.
Further, the government also announced the name of top 30 AI applications from the IndiaAI Innovation Challenge across 5 themes.
