Dated December 17, 2002
The Times of India

Centre is planning to set up a core facility for nanotechnology which will focus on key areas like nano-electronics, nano-informatics and nano-sciences. The core facility, the location of which is not yet finalized, will be supported by half a dozen regional nanotechnology competency centers.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of HPC Asia 2002, an international conference on High Performance Computing, held in Bangalore, Shri. Rajeeva Ratna Shah, Secretary of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), said: "The project is in an early stage. We are still debating on this. However, we are committed to make investments in areas like nanotechnology."

Shah also said that PARAM Padma, C-DAC's Next Generation High Performance scalable computing cluster with computing capacity up to one teraflop is ready for release: "We are waiting for a suitable date for its release. We will be targeting both domestic and overseas markets for this product," he added. He informed that PARAM Padma would be priced at $5 million, which is half the market price. A total number of 52 PARAM (PARAM 10000) machines are already installed including seven outside India.

Interestingly, the restructuring of C-DAC came into effect on Monday. As a result of this move C-DAC now operates through two key divisions one engaged in research and development activities and the other catering to high-end manpower development requirements in the area of computing.

According to Shri. V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary for Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has committed $50 million towards a Geneva based European consortium that is building 'practical accelerator' - a new generation system which will work on material structures. The Indian scientists and researchers are expecting to participate in this initiative which will be ready by 2005.

More News >>