India to nearly double GPU capacity to 29,000 under national AI Mission

The government expects to add about 15,000 more graphics processing units (GPUs) to its common compute cluster under the IndiaAI Mission, taking the total to 29,000 GPUs, said a senior official.

Currently, 14,000 GPUs are available through the IndiaAI compute portal launched on March 6, the government’s initiative to enable access to scarce and expensive GPUs for academia, MSMEs, startups, governments, public sector agencies and others, at affordable rates.

The government has also extended the deadline for submitting proposals for creating homegrown foundational AI models from April 22 to April 30 "in view of the overwhelming response received", IndiaAI said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday. This is the second time it has extended this deadline, after first pushing it from April 15, for the third round of applications.

Acceptance of fresh applications will now be paused after April 30 "in light of the large volume of responses received till now" which are under evaluation, said a post on the IndiaAI portal.

The GPU services are being offered by the government at Rs 67, or less than a dollar, per GPU hour.

Every quarter IndiaAI is inviting fresh proposals for empanelment of agencies to provide GPU services under this initiative for discovering revised rates, as per the Request for Empanelment (RFE) document published in February.

The last date for filing the next round of applications under this continuous empanelment process is April 30, with evaluations set to begin next month.

The empanelled agencies can submit a revised financial proposal, which can be the same or lower than the existing lowest rates.