Content :
- India’s Common Compute Capacity Crosses 34,000 GPUs
- DHRUVA (Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address)
India’s Common Compute Capacity Crosses 34,000 GPUs
AI Ecosystem Development
Compute Capacity Milestone:
- India’s national AI compute capacity has surpassed 34,000 GPUs (now at 34,333 GPUs).
- 15,916 GPUs were recently added to the earlier 18,417 under the IndiaAI Compute Infrastructure.
Common Compute Platform:
- Aims to democratize AI access and provide training/inference capabilities to startups, academia, and researchers.
- Supports development of indigenous AI models suited for the Indian context.
Relevance : GS 3(Science and Technology)
IndiaAI Mission – Key Pillars Strengthened
Foundation Model Development:
- Focus on India-specific, multilingual, and sector-focused AI models.
- 506 proposals received under the Call for Foundation Models (as of April 30, 2025).
Three New Startups Selected:
- Soket AI:To build a 120B parameter open-source foundation model.Target: defense, healthcare, education, and Indian linguistic diversity.
- Gnani AI:Developing 14B parameter multilingual Voice AI model.Real-time speech processing and advanced reasoning.
- Gan AI:Working on a 70B parameter TTS (text-to-speech) model.Goal: Create “superhuman” voice synthesis surpassing global leaders.
Earlier Selection – Sarvam AI:
- Building India’s Sovereign LLM with 120B parameters.
- Key applications: 2047 Citizen Connect, AI4Pragati.
- Previously launched: Sarvam-1 (2B) and Sarvam-M (24B).
AI Kosh and Data Access
- 367 datasets uploaded to AI Kosh – India’s centralized AI dataset repository.
- Designed to offer high-quality, open, and diverse datasets for training Indian AI models.
AI Talent and Brain Gain
- IndiaAI Mission encourages reverse brain drain by creating:
- Opportunities for Indian researchers abroad.
- A comprehensive AI ecosystem including standards, compute, datasets, and capacity building.
IndiaAI I4C CyberGuard Hackathon
- Jointly organized with Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
- Objective: Enhance AI models to detect cybercrime trends via NCRP.
- Outcomes:
- Models can interpret handwritten FIRs, screenshots, and audio complaints.
- Helps in automated classification and trend identification in cybercrimes.
AI Compute Cost Structure
- 7 industry players provided competitive pricing for GPU access.
- CyFuture India Pvt. Ltd. emerged as L1 bidder for most categories including AMD, Intel, NVIDIA GPUs.
- Example Pricing (One-Month):
- AMD MI300X (8X): ₹1389.904/hour.
- Intel Gaudi 2 (8X): ₹374.4/hour.
- NVIDIA A100 80GB (8X): ₹712.8/hour.
- AWS Trainium (16X): ₹945/hour.
Strategic Significance
- Supports PM Modi’s vision of “Make AI in India, Make AI work for India”.
- Aims at technological sovereignty, ethical AI, and inclusive digital empowerment.
- India is positioning itself to be among the top 5 AI nations globally.
What is a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)?
- Definition: A GPU is a specialized processor designed to accelerate graphics rendering and parallel computing tasks.
- Full Form: GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit.
- Core Function: Originally built to render images and videos in computers and gaming consoles.
- Modern Use: Extensively used in AI/ML, scientific computing, data analytics, and deep learning due to its parallel processing capabilities.
DHRUVA (Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address)
Background & Context
- Addressing Problem in India: India lacks a standardized digital address system, leading to inefficiencies in delivery of services, logistics, governance, and emergency response.
- Initiative of Department of Posts: Under the Ministry of Communications, the department is leveraging its nationwide physical presence and postal data assets to lead this digital transformation.
- Previous Milestone – DIGIPIN:
- Digital Postal Index Number is a geo-coded, logical naming system that improves address discoverability.
- Serves as the foundational layer for Geospatial Governance.
Relevance : GS 2(Governance)
What is DHRUVA?
- Full Form: Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address.
- Core Objective: Create a national, digital, interoperable, and geocoded addressing system.
- Policy Nature: Serves as a blueprint for building a Digital Address Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).
Key Components of DHRUVA
Digital Address as DPI:
- Treats addresses like Aadhaar or UPI IDs—as a critical public digital good.
- Promotes interoperability and standardization.
Geo-Coded and Interoperable:
- Ensures addresses are tagged with precise geospatial coordinates, enabling location-specific targeting of services.
Address-as-a-Service (AaaS):
- Offers digital services around address creation, verification, updating, and consent-based sharing.
- Facilitates seamless interaction among citizens, government departments, and private players.
Consent-Based Data Sharing:
- Empowers individuals to control and share their address data securely.
- Enhances trust, privacy, and user autonomy in address-related transactions.
Key Objectives & Vision
Governance Efficiency:
- Enables targeted public service delivery, urban planning, property taxation, and emergency response.
Inclusive Development:
- Helps citizens in informal or unaddressed geographies (e.g., slums, rural areas) gain digital identity of location.
Logistics & E-commerce Boost:
- Reduces last-mile delivery errors, supports hyperlocal services, and optimizes supply chain efficiencies.
Financial Inclusion:
- Provides digital address proofs that can support KYC and banking access, especially for the unbanked.
Salient Features
- Open & Public: The system is intended to be freely accessible in the public domain.
- Co-Creation Framework:
- Encourages public-private partnerships (PPPs) for developing address-related tools and APIs.
- Technological Neutrality:
- Built as an open architecture, allowing private sector innovation while maintaining public oversight.
Strategic Importance
- Pillar of India’s DPI Ecosystem : Joins Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker, and ONDC in building a Digital Bharat stack.
- Enabler for Smart Cities Mission : Precise digital addresses support urban mobility, resource allocation, and GIS-based planning.
- Bridges Digital Divide : Helps integrate marginalized communities into the formal digital economy.
- Boosts Ease of Living : Simplifies document submissions, delivery services, and utility registration processes.
Stakeholder Involvement
- Government: Ministries, state govts, municipal bodies for governance integration.
- Private Sector: Logistics, fintech, e-commerce, mapping services (e.g., Google Maps, MapMyIndia).
- Citizens: End-users and data owners with control and benefit from the ecosystem.
Call for Participation
- The government invites public feedback on the policy to ensure:
- Inclusivity
- Practical feasibility
- Alignment with citizen needs
- Link to review and respond:
🔗 DIGIPIN Policy Document
Implications Going Forward
- Digital Address to become KYC enabler just like Aadhaar.
- Could reduce dependence on physical proofs like utility bills for address verification.
- Acts as a foundational enabler for AI/ML-based urban analytics, climate resilience planning, and dynamic address-based datasets.
