Thursday’s Rajya Sabha proceedings turned heads when AAP’s Raghav Chadha voiced deep apprehensions over India’s AI trajectory, pinpointing GPU scarcity—not money, investment, or brainpower—as the paramount obstacle.
He elaborated on the tangible impacts: surging GPU prices coupled with supply chain volatilities are stalling data center scaling and AI model training nationwide. With only around 34,000 GPUs at disposal, India lags far behind the threshold needed for frontier AI innovations.
Through the Chair, Chadha pressed the Science and Technology Ministry for insights into the government’s roadmap, including timelines and geopolitical strategies for assured computational access.
In response, MoS Jitendra Singh concurred that GPU constraints are an acknowledged worldwide hurdle, central to AI’s foundational infrastructure. Detailing the India AI Mission, he spotlighted the ‘Compute’ pillar, which delivers high-performance resources via listed providers with 40% subsidies for qualified users.
Arrangements for supplementary compute to train 30-65 billion parameter models are underway. The private sector’s involvement has been unlocked, evidenced by the fresh call for proposals issued to spur investments.
Singh projected optimism, stating the government’s vigilant approach will bridge gaps and cement India’s AI leadership. This dialogue arrives at a crux moment, as nations vie for AI dominance; India’s ability to surmount hardware barriers will dictate its competitive edge in this epochal shift.