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Amazon’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is “engaging with the Indian government” over its request for proposal (RFP) to procure high-end graphic processor units (GPUs) for AI Mission which aims to bolster the nation’s computing infrastructure, a senior company executive said.
According to reports, leading technology companies, including Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud have shown interest in the government tender to procure GPUs.
Pankaj Gupta, Leader-Public Sector, Amazon India, called the India AI mission an empowerment framework for the sector, and indicated that the firm was engaging with the government on the same.
“There is an active RFP process for the India AI program, and we are engaging with the government on that. We welcome this paradigm programme by the government of India which will democratise AI and bring everybody in the ecosystem together,” said Gupta in an interaction with Business Standard on the sidelines of the AWS Empower India event on Wednesday.
Under the Rs 10,372 crore India AI Mission, the central government plans to procure high-end graphic processor units (GPUs) and provide it to Indian startups engaged in development of AI solutions that require huge computational power.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had recently floated a request for proposal (RFP) for procuring GPUs from private entities.
Gupta also reiterated the plan of the company to invest $15 billion in the country till 2030. So far the company has already invested around $3.7 billion between 2016 to 2022. An additional investment of $12.7 billion is also being invested across the country, including Hyderabad in setting up a mega data cluster for the firm.
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AWS also announced a number of key public sector collaborations in India during the event, including the National Health Authority (NHA), Government e-Marketplace (GeM), and Public Sector Bank Alliance (PSBA). The firm said that it was enabling NHA to establish an open digital health ecosystem in India.
Using AWS, NHA is implementing core modules of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) program’s applications like beneficiary identification system and transaction management system, to manage beneficiary identification, and claim transaction management in a scalable and secure manner, said the company.
The company also announced that the PSB Alliance Private Limited (PSBA) had empanelled AWS to offer cloud computing services to India’s public sector banks (PSBs).
PSBA is an umbrella organisation formed by 12 public sector banks, which includes Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, among others.
In the starting phase, AWS will help PSBs in enabling peripheral non-core banking services such as WhatsApp banking, loan management etc., and plans move to core banking services at a later stage.
“We are trying to help them for the first time ease out the entire public sector procurement process. So now, the member banks will be able to approach PSBA. They will not directly start with the core banking kind of application, which is very complex. But things like WhatsApp banking, things like loan management, engaging with their customers, CRM, maybe something around human resources, all those peripheral applications will be provided. The core banking will take time, as that is very complex,” Gupta explained.
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