Supercomputer Delivery Delays Anger Earth Sciences Minister, Threaten Weather Forecasting Upgrades

Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of Earth Sciences, has voiced his frustration with Atos, a French IT company, over delays in the delivery of two supercomputers crucial for enhancing Indian weather forecasting capabilities.

Last year, the Earth Sciences Ministry placed an order worth $100 million with Eviden, an Atos Group company, for the supercomputers. These machines were intended to significantly boost the computing power of the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM).

"I am more upset because the target we set was December," Rijiju stated in a video interview with PTI. "The Union Cabinet had already approved purchasing the supercomputer. We have only four petaflop capacity. We want to install up to 18 petaflop capacity."

The minister further explained that the French company encountered financial difficulties and requested the government to make payments to its subsidiary.

Rijiju emphasized that the delay is a source of "worry" because the company has exceeded the agreed-upon timeline. However, he expressed optimism that the issue would be resolved soon, adding that the government is keen to maintain a "very correct in our position legally".

"We are ready to release the money because we want the machine immediately. The only problem is the amount is not small. So if we pay now, if the company is bankrupt or something happens, who will bail out," the minister said.

He also mentioned that the government is exploring ways to expedite the delivery of the supercomputers but refrained from providing specific details. "But I hope the French government will also intervene because we have a good understanding and a very good relationship with the French government."

Rijiju clarified the government's stance on the payment issue, stating, "From outside, everything's ready. It is only the problem with the main company. They want us to pay their subsidiary. We will pay only to a company whom we have entered an MoU with."

Supercomputer Specifications

The supercomputing system, based on Eviden's BullSequana XH2000, is expected to have a combined power capacity of up to 21.3 petaflops.

IITM Supercomputer Details

The supercomputer destined for IITM in Pune will deliver 13 petaflops of computing power for research related to the atmosphere and climate. According to PTI, it will incorporate 3,000 CPU nodes powered by AMD EPYC 7643 processors and 26 GPU nodes using NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs. The system will also feature the NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand networking platform with In-Network Computing, 3PB all flash and 29PB disk-based DDN EXAScaler ES400NVX2 storage and Micron high-technology memory.

Currently, the computing facilities at NCMRWF and IITM have capacities of 2.8 petaflops and 4 petaflops, respectively.