AIRAWAT: An overview
AIRAWAT stands for AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform. It’s a AI Supercomputer installed at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Pune. According to the economic survey, AIRAWAT has secured the 75th position in the list of top 500 global supercomputers announced at the International Supercomputing Conference 2023 in Germany.
AIRAWAT: Objective and vision
AIRAWAT, in conjunction with the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, aims to empower academia, research labs, the scientific community, industry and start-ups to develop indigenous AI-based products and solutions. The platform will address India-specific grand challenges and complex real-life problems as well as global issues in areas such as:
- Natural Language Processing
- Surveillance and image processing
- Education
- Agriculture
- Finance
- Health care
- National security
- Defense
- Automobile industry
- Abnormal behavior detection from video analysis
- Supply Chain Management
- Human resources development
India, a supercomputing success story
A press release issued in 2023 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) highlighted that AIRAWAT’s ranking places India among the leading nations in AI supercomputing. Installed under the National Programme on AI, the system is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘AI FOR ALL’.
Statements by key figures
Alkesh Sharma, Secretary, MeitY, highlighted that “Artificial Intelligence is the most promising technology of the digital age. India has a strong ecosystem and competitive advantage in AI due to its massive data availability, strong digital economy and skilled workforce.” He highlighted India’s focus on AI applied in sectors such as natural language processing, image processing, pattern recognition, agriculture, medical imaging, education, healthcare, audio assistance and robotics.
Abhishek Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, NeGD and Joint Secretary, MeitY, added, “The Proof of Concept (PoC) AI Research, Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform (AIRAWAT) with 200 petaflops of mixed-precision AI edge computing capacity is currently funded by MeitY and implemented by C-DAC, Pune.” Singh noted that AIRAWAT aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of leveraging technology and AI for the welfare of common citizens.
Cultural significance
Interestingly, in Indian mythology, AIRAWAT is the name of Lord Indra’s elephant, a creature with immense power. This name underlines the importance and potential impact of the supercomputer.
