India Eases Tender Rules for AI Mission, OKs Budget GPUs.

Published Date::30/09/2024

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has tweaked tender norms to allow the use of low-cost graphic processing units (GPUs) under the Rs 10,000-crore Artificial Intelligence (AI) mission.

The Indian government has relaxed tender norms for the procurement of graphic processing units (GPUs) under the Rs 10,000-crore Artificial Intelligence (AI) mission. The move is significant as the earlier tender specifications would have restricted bidders from procuring Nvidia GPUs like A100, H100, and Blackwell B200, among others, which are used for high-end training of large AI models.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has tweaked the tender norms by downgrading parameters such as computational performance, memory workloads, and lower power requirements. For example, the specifications for AI compute units now mandate GPUs to have performance for FP (floating point) 32 with 10 TFLOPS (tera floating point operations per second) or above, performance for FP16 with 150 TFLOPS or above, and AI compute memory of 24 GB or above.

The changed specifications will allow more low-cost GPUs to qualify for the tender, including those from AMD and Nvidia. The government has also reduced the average annual turnover requirement for bidders to Rs 50 crore from Rs 100 crore earlier.

The tender is currently limited to procuring 1,000 such GPUs, which will see participation from data center providers, cloud services providers, or authorized partners of such solution providers. The government has finalized a viability gap funding model, wherein it will subsidize compute costs up to 50% for startups, which want to utilize GPUs.

According to officials, the change in GPU specifications has been made as a majority of startups are using small-scale tuning and inference for developing and deploying AI and generative AI applications. Also, in order to avoid delays owing to supply constraints of Nvidia high-end GPUs, it was essential to pave the way for more low-cost GPUs.

FAQS:

Q: What is the India AI mission?

A: The India AI mission is a Rs 10,000-crore initiative by the Indian government to promote the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in the country.

Q: What is the purpose of relaxing tender norms for GPU procurement?

A: The purpose of relaxing tender norms is to allow the use of low-cost GPUs under the India AI mission, which will enable more startups to participate in the development and deployment of AI applications.

Q: Which companies will benefit from the relaxed tender norms?

A: Companies such as Nvidia, AMD, and other GPU manufacturers will benefit from the relaxed tender norms, as their low-cost GPUs will now be eligible for procurement under the India AI mission.

Q: What is the viability gap funding model?

A: The viability gap funding model is a funding mechanism wherein the government will subsidize compute costs up to 50% for startups, which want to utilize GPUs under the India AI mission.

Q: What is the deadline for submission of bids for the AI compute infra tender?

A: The last date for submission of bids for the AI compute infra tender is October 16.

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