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Today, India is recognised as a leading technology and business outsourcing destination worldwide.
Despite a commendable showing on the global IT stage, India’s investments in research and development (R&D) are abysmally low.
We have 17 per cent of the world’s population but we publish only 2.5 per cent of the world's scientific research. We spend a mere 0.9 per cent of our GDP on R&D - far behind countries such as China and South Korea.
On the one hand, industries in India such as aerospace, defence, oil & gas exploration are striving to become globally competitive. On the other, India is attempting to secure its economic prosperity and tap into new sources of innovation and growth.
Clearly, we need to strengthen our R&D and build a sustainable research pipeline. Supercomputing is the way forward to achieve this and it is heartening to see that the Indian Government has taken note of this fact.
The Government has acknowledged the need to invest time and money in advanced R&D projects across key industries and strategic sectors. This is evident from its decision to double expenditure on scientific research in the 12th Five Year Plan.
Significantly, the Government has also recognised the critical role that supercomputing plays in building a nation’s research capacities.
The fact that supercomputers make for energy efficient research should further add momentum to the Government’s supercomputing policy.
At the highest levels of the Indian Government, there has been a definite thrust for augmenting India’s supercomputing expertise to advance the country’s growth capabilities.
We endorse and support the Government’s decision to build the world’s fastest supercomputer by 2017. India certainly does not lack the experience and expertise to achieve this dream.
However, much depends on the availability of budgets, technology and talent as well as the presence of a robust research and technology ecosystem.
We hope the Government will make continued investments in nurturing talent and supporting the development of hardware systems that can drive India’s supercomputing aspirations.
(The author is Managing Director, South Asia – Nvidia.)
As told to S. Ronendra Singh
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