National Supercomputing Mission: India Deploys 40 Indigenous Supercomputers

Why in the News?

India has achieved an important milestone under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) by deploying 40 supercomputers with a combined computing capacity of 68 petaflops (PF) as of September 2026.

According to the Press Information Bureau (PIB), these locally built systems have been installed at academic and research institutions across India.

The achievement highlights India's progress towards technological self-reliance and the development of indigenous High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure.

What Is the National Supercomputing Mission?

The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) was launched in April 2015 by the Government of India to strengthen the country's supercomputing capabilities.

The mission was launched with an estimated outlay of approximately ₹4,500 crore.

It is jointly steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The mission is implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Its main objective is to develop an indigenous supercomputing ecosystem and provide advanced computing facilities to researchers, universities and scientific institutions.

Progress Under the Mission

As of September 2026, the mission had deployed 40 supercomputers with a total capacity of 68 petaflops.

These include 13 high-end systems with computing capacities exceeding one petaflop, 12 mid-range systems with capacities between 500 teraflops and one petaflop, and 15 systems with capacities below 500 teraflops.

The mission plans to establish a total of 50 supercomputers with a cumulative computing capacity exceeding 123 petaflops.

The deployed infrastructure has supported more than 16,000 researchers, including over 2,900 PhD scholars, across more than 400 institutions.

These systems have executed over 1.5 crore computing jobs and contributed to more than 1,990 research publications.

Indigenous Technologies Developed Under NSM

The National Supercomputing Mission focuses not only on installing supercomputers but also on developing essential technologies within India.

PARAM Rudra Supercomputers

The PARAM Rudra series represents an important achievement in indigenous supercomputing.

These systems use locally designed Rudra servers and indigenous system software.

As of September 2026, approximately 6,000 Rudra servers had been deployed in PARAM Rudra supercomputers, while another 1,500 servers were under manufacturing.

High-Speed Networking

The mission has developed high-speed interconnect technology capable of supporting data transfer at 100 Gbps and 200 Gbps.

This technology allows different computing nodes to communicate efficiently during complex calculations.

Indigenous Cooling Technology

Cooling systems are essential for maintaining the operating temperature of powerful supercomputers.

Under NSM, indigenous cooling technology has been developed and demonstrated to improve energy efficiency and system performance.

PARAM Shavak

PARAM Shavak is an indigenously developed compact supercomputing system designed to support HPC and Artificial Intelligence research in educational institutions.

Applications of Supercomputers in India

Supercomputers are used to process massive datasets and perform complex calculations much faster than conventional computers.

Weather Forecasting and Climate Modelling: Supercomputers help predict rainfall, cyclones, extreme weather events and climate-related changes.

Healthcare and Drug Discovery: Advanced computing supports genomics research, molecular simulations and the discovery of new medicines.

Disaster Management: Supercomputers support flood forecasting, forest-fire prediction and other early warning systems.

Space and Scientific Research: HPC infrastructure helps researchers perform simulations related to astrophysics, materials science and advanced engineering.

Agriculture: Supercomputing applications support crop modelling, environmental monitoring and research related to agricultural productivity.

What Is a Petaflop?

A petaflop is a unit used to measure the processing performance of a computer.

One petaflop represents one quadrillion (10¹⁵) floating-point operations per second.

Floating-point operations are mathematical calculations commonly used in scientific simulations, artificial intelligence and advanced computing.

The higher the computing capacity, the greater the number of calculations a system can perform per second.

History of Supercomputing in India

India's indigenous supercomputing journey began with the development of PARAM 8000 in 1991 by C-DAC.

PARAM 8000 was an important milestone in India's efforts to develop advanced computing technology domestically.

Over time, India developed several powerful systems under the PARAM series.

The launch of the National Supercomputing Mission in 2015 provided a coordinated framework for expanding supercomputing infrastructure across the country.

National Knowledge Network

The National Knowledge Network (NKN) serves as the backbone of India's supercomputing ecosystem.

It connects academic and research institutions through a high-speed national network.

This connectivity enables scientists and researchers to access computing resources and collaborate across different institutions.

Conclusion

The deployment of 40 supercomputers under the National Supercomputing Mission marks significant progress in India's efforts to strengthen its indigenous high-performance computing capabilities.

The mission supports scientific research, climate forecasting, healthcare innovation and disaster management while reducing dependence on imported computing technologies.

It also contributes to India's broader objectives of technological self-reliance and scientific development.