Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary Shri S. Krishnan launched ‘Param Shakti’, an indigenously developed and manufactured 3.1 Petaflop PARAM RUDRA supercomputing system, at Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).

Built entirely in India with C-DAC’s RUDRA series of servers the system runs on open-source software, including AlmaLinux, C-DAC’s Indigenously designed and developed system software stack and reinforcing India’s commitment to technological self-reliance.

The 3.1 petaflop capability signifies that the system can perform over 3.1 quadrillion calculations per second, placing it among the most powerful computing facilities in Indian academia.

This level of performance is crucial because it enables researchers to solve large, complex problems faster and more accurately, reducing years of experimental work and allowing India to compete at a global scale in areas such as aerospace, materials, climate modelling, drug discovery and advanced manufacturing.

Under NSM Param Shakti houses the Param Rudra supercomputing cluster along with an integrated infrastructure for round-the-clock power, advanced cooling and data centre operations. Designed, developed and implemented by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the system has been funded under the National Supercomputing Mission, jointly led by MeitY and Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The Param Shakti facility was inaugurated on 3rd January 2026 by Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, in the presence of Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, Shri E. Magesh, Director General, C-DAC, Senior officials from MeitY, faculty members and students of IIT Madras.

Addressing the students, Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, said, “I have had a long association with IIT Madras, including in my earlier roles, and I have seen first-hand how truly interdisciplinary the Institute has become. It is encouraging to see faculty and researchers from diverse departments coming together to use this facility and contribute meaningfully in their respective domains.”

Shri S. Krishnan added, “Under the National Supercomputing Mission, we are supporting a wide range of use cases and application-driven projects with dedicated funding, designed to operate at a scale that can make a real difference. With 37 supercomputers already installed across institutions nationwide and more in the pipeline, including the largest system planned for Bengaluru, these efforts are strengthening India’s research and innovation ecosystem.”

Further, Shri S. Krishnan said, “Under the IndiaAI Mission, we have been deliberate in not promoting a single technology or a single type of GPU. By enabling access to multiple GPU architectures, we want our innovators, scientists and researchers to gain broad exposure and develop the capability to master diverse platforms. This approach strengthens resilience, encourages informed technology choices and ensures that India’s AI ecosystem does not become dependent on any one solution, even within this rapidly evolving domain.”

Highlighting the growing importance of high-performance computing in modern research, the new facility is expected to significantly enhance computational capabilities across domains such as computational fluid dynamics, aerospace engineering, materials science, combustion studies, molecular dynamics, nuclear sciences and drug discovery.

In many of these fields, large-scale simulations now eliminate a substantial portion of experimental trial-and-error, enabling faster, more cost-effective and globally competitive research outcomes.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, explained various ways MeitY was driving the growth of computing technology and the digital revolution in the country over the decades. The National Knowledge Network that powers the connectivity of all Centrally-funded academic institutions is one such initiative.

Prof. V. Kamakoti urged the students to develop program codes that are energy efficient, allow for the sharing of GPU resources effectively and are safe from memory leaks. He listed various technologies that need to become indigenous to allow for the realization of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Addressing the gathering, Shri E. Magesh, Director General, C-DAC, traced C-DAC’s journey in developing the Rudra platform and encouraged researchers to increasingly adopt indigenous high-performance computing systems.

Prof. G. Phanikumar, Chairman, Computer Centre, IIT Madras, highlighted ‘MicroSim’ — a multi-GPU solver suite for microstructure evolution developed with NSM support — which has been made open source and is among the fastest in its category worldwide.

Operational since May 2025, the PARAM SHAKTI facility has already achieved over 80 per cent utilisation, reflecting strong demand from researchers. With a power usage effectiveness (PUE) ranging between 1.2 and 1.4, the facility also demonstrates high standards in energy-efficient infrastructure integration. Researchers at IIT Madras are currently using the system across multiple length and time scales — from sub-atomic electronic structure calculations to large-scale structural and system-level simulations.

The inauguration of PARAM SHAKTI facility marks a significant milestone for IIT Madras and the National Supercomputing Mission, strengthening India’s high-performance computing ecosystem. As NSM moves towards its next phase, with national computing capacity expected to approach exascale levels, facilities such as PARAM SHAKTI will play a pivotal role in enabling Indian researchers to develop globally competitive, indigenous computational tools and solutions.