After Rejection From The US, India Made Its Own Supercomputer, And All Thanks To This Man

Along its history, India has witnessed many people doing extraordinary things. But the story of how Dr. Vijay P Bhatkar created the first supercomputer for the country is one that should always be remembered and shared among younger generations as a symbol of India’s strength and spirit. And the man is now renowned as the father of Indian supercomputer.

Simply speaking, supercomputers are much faster, more powerful machines compared with regular computers. And the country might not have had its own supercomputer if it hadn’t been for Dr. Vijay P Bhatkar. He successfully developed Param, which was even more special after the United States turned down to sell supercomputers to India. Dr. Bhatkar is now known as the Father of Indian Supercomputer, conferred a Maharashtra Bhushan, Padma Shri, and Padma Bhushan award.

Father of Indian supercomputer - An Epic Story

The country began its plan to bring in supercomputers in the late 80s, but it was in 1987 that we found out the US no longer exported Cray supercomputer. The reason was that the US didn’t want to hand over the technology to India to keep the country dependent on it.

Facing the rejection from the United States, in March 1988, India set up C-DAC, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, with Dr. Bhatkar as the founder and executive director.

After three years of research, learning, and testing, the extraordinary happened. Along with hard work and the leadership of Dr. Bhatkar, the center pulled off a deal.

C-DAC accomplished its work far ahead of the proposed deadline, getting the spotlight with the first supercomputer in India, called PARAM 8000, unveiled in 1991.

Interestingly, PARAM 8000 had 28 times the power of the Cray. India’s first super-computer not only took over the home market but also attracted 14 buyers due to a low price of $350,000 (roughly Rs 2.4 crore).

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