Chennai: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S. Krishnan, on 3 January, inaugurated ‘Param Shakti’, a state-of-the-art supercomputing facility hosting the indigenously developed 3.1 petaflop PARAM Rudra system at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).
Built entirely in India using C-DAC’s Rudra series of servers, the system operates on open-source software, including AlmaLinux and an indigenously designed system software stack.
Capable of performing over 3.1 quadrillion calculations per second, Param Shakti ranks among the most powerful supercomputing facilities in Indian academia and is expected to significantly enhance research across domains such as aerospace, climate modelling, materials science, drug discovery and advanced manufacturing.
Developed and implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the facility has been funded under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), jointly led by MeitY and the Department of Science and Technology.
In addition to the computing cluster, the facility includes integrated infrastructure for uninterrupted power supply, advanced cooling and data centre operations.
Addressing students and faculty, Krishnan highlighted the growing interdisciplinary research culture at IIT Madras and said the NSM is supporting application-driven projects at a scale capable of delivering real impact.
He noted that 37 supercomputers have already been deployed nationwide, with more planned, including the country’s largest system in Bengaluru. He also underlined the IndiaAI Mission’s approach of enabling access to multiple GPU architectures to avoid technology dependence.
IIT Madras Director V. Kamakoti emphasised the role of MeitY in building India’s digital and computing ecosystem and urged students to focus on energy-efficient and secure coding practices.
C-DAC Director General E. Magesh traced the development of the Rudra platform and encouraged wider adoption of indigenous high-performance computing systems.
Operational since May 2025, Param Shakti has already recorded over 80 per cent utilisation, reflecting strong demand from researchers. With high energy efficiency and growing adoption, the facility marks a key milestone in strengthening India’s high-performance computing ecosystem as the NSM progresses towards exascale ambitions.
