New Delhi: The government has called for proposals to enlist entities that can provide artificial intelligence services via the cloud for the India AI mission, valued at Rs 10,372 crore, approved by the cabinet in March.
The organizations chosen, including data centres and cloud service providers, are required to offer access to advanced AI computing resources like GPUs, accelerators, TPUs, and storage to academia, startups, researchers, and government bodies, among others, at the most competitive rates established through a bidding process.
The IndiaAI Mission aims to create an AI ecosystem by granting access to over 10,000 GPUs to various stakeholders. IndiaAI, an initiative under Digital India Corporation, MeitY, has released an RFE (request for empanelment) to panel service providers to fulfil this objective, as announced by MeitY’s Additional Secretary Abhishek Singh on social media.
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence globally has increased the demand for GPU-powered servers, which process data faster than CPU-based servers.
In India, the expense of GPU-based cloud services is reportedly double that of countries with a significant GPU presence. According to MeitY’s bid document, selected agencies will deliver essential high-performance computing, networking, and storage services for IndiaAI Mission initiatives, which include developing LLMs and AI applications similar to ChatGPT.