Weather Forecasting Hit by Supercomputer Delay: Minister Rijiju Expresses Concern Over French Firm Atos

Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of Earth Sciences, has voiced his frustration with Atos, a French IT company, due to delays in the delivery of two crucial supercomputers. These machines are intended for use by India's premier weather forecasting institutes.

PTI photo

Last year, the Earth Sciences Ministry placed an order for the supercomputers, valued at $100 million, with Eviden, a subsidiary of the Atos Group. The aim was to bolster the computational abilities of the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM).

Rijiju expressed his disappointment, stating in a video interview with PTI, "I am more upset because the target we set was December. The Union Cabinet had already approved purchasing the supercomputer. We have only four petaflop capacity. We want to install up to 18 petaflop capacity."

According to Rijiju, the French company encountered financial difficulties and requested that the government make payments to its subsidiary.

The minister emphasized his "worry" over the delays, stating that the company had missed the agreed-upon deadline. "But I think we will sort it out soon," he added, while also noting the government's commitment to ensuring legal correctness in the matter.

"We are ready to release the money because we want the machine immediately. The only problem is the amount is not small. So if we pay now, if the company is bankrupt or something happens, who will bail out," the minister said, highlighting the financial risks involved.

Rijiju mentioned that the government is actively pursuing measures to expedite the delivery of the supercomputer, but refrained from providing specific details. He expressed hope that the French government would intervene, given the strong relationship between the two countries.

"Since it is a high-cost equipment, we want to ensure that the transaction happens duly and properly," he stated.

Rijiju clarified the payment issue, saying, "From outside, everything's ready. It is only the problem with the main company. They want us to pay their subsidiary. We will pay only to a company whom we have entered an MoU with."

The supercomputing system, based on Eviden's BullSequana XH2000, is projected to have a combined power capacity of up to 21.3 petaflops.

Boosting Climate Research

The supercomputer destined for IITM in Pune will deliver 13 petaflops of computing power, dedicated to advancing atmosphere and climate research. The PTI report indicates that it will feature 3,000 CPU nodes using AMD EPYC 7643 processors and 26 GPU nodes utilizing NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs. The system will also incorporate the NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand networking platform with In-Network Computing, 3PB all flash and 29PB disk-based DDN EXAScaler ES400NVX2 storage and Micron high-technology memory.

Currently, the computing facility at NCMRWF stands at 2.8 petaflops, while IITM has a capacity of 4 petaflops.