ICMR has launched its NAKSHATRA high-performance computing facility to enhance India's genomic research and pandemic preparedness. Located at NIV Pune, it enables faster analysis of genomic data to quickly identify new disease threats, manage outbreaks more effectively, and speed up the development of AI-driven vaccines and drugs.
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The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has established a high-performance computing (HPC) facility, named 'NAKSHATRA', at its National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.
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Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) It is responsible for the formulation, coordination, and promotion of biomedical research. Established in 1911 as the Indian Research Fund Association (IRFA), the organization was renamed the Indian Council of Medical Research in 1949. Funded by the Department of Health Research of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In 2007, the ICMR established the Clinical Trials Registry - India, the country's national registry for clinical trials. |
This facility was developed under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) to enhance genomic surveillance and data analysis capacity.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for rapid processing of vast amounts of genomic data. The NAKSHATRA facility is designed to overcome these past limitations.
The facility includes 12 compute nodes with a total of 700 cores and 1 petabyte of storage to handle complex bioinformatics workflows.
The HPC facility reduces the time needed for complex genomic analysis. For example, tasks that previously took months can now be completed in 24 to 48 hours.
The infrastructure supports a wide range of bioinformatics applications, including:
Early Threat Detection => The high-speed computing power enables scientists to detect new disease threats sooner, which allows for a more efficient and timely response to potential outbreaks.
Accelerated Research => The facility supports various research areas, including next-generation sequencing, transcriptomics, phylogenetics, metagenomics, and structural bioinformatics. This will accelerate the development of AI-driven vaccines and drugs.
Strengthening National Health Security => By improving genomic surveillance, NAKSHATRA enhances India's capacity to monitor and respond to a range of infectious diseases, including Nipah, Zika, and H5N1 bird flu, contributing to the vision of a 'Viksit Bharat 2047'—a technologically empowered and health-secure nation.
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PRACTICE QUESTION Q. Consider the following statements regarding the NAKSHATRA facility: 1. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) established NAKSHATRA at its National Institute of Virology (NIV) facility in Pune. 2. Its primary objective is to enhance conventional computing infrastructure for routine diagnostic testing. 3. It supports the acceleration of AI-driven vaccine and drug development. How many of the above statements are correct? A) Only one B) Only two C) All three D) None Answer: B Explanation: Statement 1 is correct: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) introduced its first high-performance computing facility, named NAKSHATRA, at its National Institute of Virology (NIV) facility in Pune. Statement 2 is incorrect: NAKSHATRA aims to address limitations faced during the COVID-19 pandemic due to conventional computing infrastructure, but its purpose is to boost genomic storage and analysis, aiding faster detection of new disease threats, not primarily routine diagnostic testing in a conventional sense. It is designed for genomic research upgrades. Statement 3 is correct: The NAKSHATRA facility supports faster analysis of complex genomic data, allowing scientists to accelerate AI-driven vaccine and drug development. |
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