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The Param Padma teraflop high performing super-computer, developed by C-DAC, will address the concerns of Indian security because of its advance computing capabilities, said Union Minister for Communications and IT Arun Shourie on Tuesday.
Dedicating the 1 teraflop supercomputing facility in Bangalore to the nation, the first of 10 such facilities to come up across the country, Shourie said the Padma teraflop would put India in the select club of six advanced countries, which boast of having similar technology.
"The achievement of C-DAC in setting up the Padma teraflop facility in such a short time gives India a load of pride and a node of hope that the country's scientists and technologists can raise up to the occasion when access to such technology is denied by advanced countries.
Apart from using it for diverse basic applications ranging from weather forecasting, seismic data analysis, bio-informatics and nano-technology by R&D institutions and industry, Padma teraflop can be used for the development of new communication devices and weapons for our armed forces, and re-entry of our launch vehicles in space," Shourie stated.
India's future security concerns will not be confined merely to the country's borders and internal situation, but the protection of its vast networks which carry enormous data spawning financial services, critical information, software, hardware, and sensitive communication devices.
"Besides enhancing India's self-belief in its scientists and technologists, the development of such powerful computing capabilities demonstrates that we can stand up to any nation that denies us access to the next generation technology or applications," Shourie asserted.
"India is no more a land of snake charmers. We can stand up and proudly claim that we can develop our own supercomputers, rockets, space launch vehicles, missiles, and nuclear energy when denied access to such technologies and products," he said.
Assuring the government's full support to all the initiatives and projects of C-DAC, Shourie said funds would not be a constraint when it came to pursuing the lofty goals to transform India into a developed country.
Though C-DAC gets only Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) from the government for its Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) annual budget, Shourie said its demand for Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.10 billion) over the next five years to set up Padma facilities in 10 other cities would be met by the government so that the country can have its first Information grid (I-grid) in the next three to four years.
In view of the 50 per cent cost advantage India enjoys over its international rivals in setting up such clusters, C-DAC will be targeting some of the countries, which have already bought its earlier Param 10000 version with a computing power of 100 giga flops for exporting Padma terascale machines.
"We have been able to set up India's most powerful super computer at $5 million, which is half the price of similar computers being sold in the international market," said C-DAC executive director R K Arora.
C-DAC has already sold about 7 Param 10000 super computers with 100 giga flop memory to eight countries so far, including Russia (4), Canada, Singapore, and Germany (one each).
"In India, about 45 leading research and development centers and academic institutions have also installed a series of Param's high performance scalable computers for conducting R&D activities in diverse fields such as bio-informatics, nano-technologies, atmospheric and oceanic modeling for weather forecasting, and fluid dynamics for space applications," Arora said.
"Keeping in view the growing needs of the scientific and industrial communities the world over, C-DAC will be targeting both the domestic and international customers for marketing the Padma super computer, which can be scaled up to 16 tera flops," Arora affirmed.