Delays in Delivery of Supercomputers to Indian Weather Forecasting Institutes Upsets Earth Sciences Minister

Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju is reportedly frustrated with the French IT company, Atos, due to delays in the delivery of two supercomputers to Indian weather forecasting institutes. Last year, the Earth Sciences Ministry had placed an order for two supercomputers worth $100 million from French firm Eviden, a part of the Atos Group, in an effort to boost the computing capabilities of the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM).

In a recent interview with PTI, Minister Rijiju expressed his disappointment with the delays, stating, “I am more upset because the target we set was December. The Union Cabinet had already approved purchasing the supercomputer. We have only four petaflop capacity. We want to install up to 18 petaflop capacity.”

Rijiju mentioned that the French company faced financial challenges and requested the government to make payments to its subsidiary, causing further delays. The Minister emphasized that the delay has been a cause of concern for him, but he remains hopeful that the issues will be resolved soon.

Despite the setbacks, Rijiju assured that the government is taking steps to expedite the delivery of the supercomputers. He also highlighted the importance of ensuring a legally sound transaction due to the high costs involved.

The supercomputing system, based on Eviden’s BullSequana XH2000, is expected to provide a combined power capacity of up to 21.3 petaflops. The supercomputer at IITM in Pune will offer 13 petaflops of computing power for atmosphere and climate research, integrating advanced technology from AMD, NVIDIA, and Micron.

With efforts underway to resolve the delivery challenges, Minister Rijiju remains optimistic that the French government will assist in addressing the issues, given the positive relationship between the two governments.