Pioneers

3. Computer Systems

3.2. Vijay Bhatkar

Figure 1: Vijay P. Bhatkar
Figure 1: Vijay P. Bhatkar
Source: Bhatkar, V.P. (no date)

Downloadable teaching resource

Overview

Dr Vijay P. Bhatkar is a pioneering Indian computer scientist best known for developing India’s first supercomputer, PARAM. As the founding director of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), he played a central role in establishing India’s presence in high-performance computing and national digital infrastructure. His work has contributed significantly to scientific research, artificial intelligence, and the advancement of technology in education and governance (LiveMint, 2012).

Background

Dr Vijay P. Bhatkar was born in Murtijapur, Maharashtra, in 1946. He studied at Nagpur University and went on to complete his doctorate at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Early in his career, he turned down offers abroad to focus on national development, a choice that led to his pioneering work in advanced computing (Bhatkar, no date; MIT School of Vedic Sciences, no date). As the founding Executive Director of C-DAC, he led the team that built the PARAM supercomputers, positioning India as a global player in computational science. His vision blended technology with social impact, influencing initiatives like the Education-To-Home (ETH) mission and GIST multilingual computing (ACCS, 2007). Dr Bhatkar’s career has spanned roles in policy, academia, and research, earning him multiple accolades including the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.

Contributions

Dr Vijay P. Bhatkar led the development of PARAM 8000 in 1991, India’s first indigenous supercomputer, which achieved global recognition for its performance and cost-efficiency (Whizrobo, 2024). He oversaw the launch of PARAM 10000 in 1998, expanding India’s high-performance computing capabilities and establishing the National PARAM Supercomputing Facility (NPSF) and Garuda Grid infrastructure (C-DAC, 2025).

As founding director of C-DAC, Bhatkar initiated projects like GIST multilingual computing, eSanjeevani telemedicine, and quantum computing simulators including QSim (C-DAC, 2025). He has held advisory roles in national science and technology bodies and led digital literacy efforts that reached millions through MKCL and ETH initiatives.

Feature: PARAM 8000 – India’s leap into Supercomputing

Launched in 1991, PARAM 8000 marked India’s bold entry into high-performance computing. Built using transputers and parallel architecture, it delivered 100–200 MFLOPS—comparable to Western systems but at a fraction of the cost (Edunovations, 2025; Whizrobo, 2024). Developed under technology embargoes, PARAM 8000 was benchmarked internationally and exported to countries including Germany and Russia.

Its success catalyzed India’s supercomputing roadmap, leading to the creation of PARAM 10000 and the NPSF. These systems empowered scientific research in fields like climate modeling, bioinformatics, and aerospace engineering, and laid the foundation for India’s grid computing infrastructure via the Garuda Grid (C-DAC, 2025).

Watch: India’s Supercomputing Visionary – Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar

Video 1: Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar – Highlights his role in developing the PARAM supercomputers and shaping India’s tech future.

Transcript

Foreign National initiative in super Computing where he led the development of India's first supercomputer PARAM in 1990 under the technology denial regime.

Currently he is steering the National Super Computing Mission of developing excess scale architectures super Computing for India.

And they were clear now that we are going to require a significant computational resource, so what was called—what was at that time called—super.
*Super means Supreme.*
Okay, anything Supreme is called super. Yeah. Because the biggest at that time, the most powerful at that time, most capable at that time. So that's why that was called supercomputer.

Supercomputers are an indispensable technological tool for complex large-scale computing tasks and play an important role in the national economy and cutting-edge areas of science.

And the man behind India's first indigenous supercomputer PARAM 8000 is Dr Vijay Pandora.
*He is one of the most acclaimed and internationally acknowledged scientist of India. He is presently the Chancellor of Nalanda University.*

(Foreign – a flagship program of Ministry of Human Resource Development designed to address the rural areas of India.)

When I look at our country today, I see that we are facing great challenges. But the challenges are something very interesting.

What we are facing today is great paradoxes, paradoxes of unprecedented proportion. Let me just illustrate:

On one side, we are undisputed—

I think—power in the Information Technology, the Knowledge Technologies.

On the other side, in India, we have the largest illiterate population of the world even today. 30 crore people do not know how to read.
*Forget a functional literacy.*

Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar’s pioneering work on PARAM supercomputers not only marked India’s entry into high-performance computing but also symbolized technological self-reliance during a time of global embargoes. His vision continues to shape India’s digital future, blending innovation with national purpose. This video offers a glimpse into that journey—where science meets spirit, and ambition meets impact.

References and further reading

ACCS (2007) ACCS-CDAC Foundation Lecture Award Winner for 2007 – Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar. Available at: https://accsindia.org/accs-cdac-foundation-lecture-award-winner-for-2007 (Accessed: 19 July 2025)

Bhatkar, V. P. (no date) Vijay P. Bhatkar – Personal Website. Available at: https://www.vijaybhatkar.org/ (Accessed: 11 July 2025)

Bhatkar, V. P. (2021) India’s Supercomputing Visionary, YouTube video, 27 July. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92TzPS-Bh5E (Accessed: 30 July 2025)

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) (2025) C-DAC: Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India. Available at: https://www.cdac.in/index.aspx (Accessed: 18 August 2025)

CrazyEngineers (2024) Dr. Vijay Bhatkar – Father Of Indian Supercomputers. Available at: https://www.crazyengineers.com/founders-circuit/dr-vijay-bhatkar-supercomputers (Accessed: 19 July 2025)

IEEE (no date) Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar – Publications and Research Profile. Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37376852600 (Accessed: 19 July 2025)

LiveMint (2012) ‘Yesterday’s supercomputers are today’s laptops: Bhatkar’. LiveMint, 21 November. Available at: https://www.livemint.com/.../Yesterdays-supercomputers-are-todays-laptops-Bhatkar.html (Accessed: 11 July 2025)

MIT School of Vedic Sciences (no date) Padma Bhushan Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar. Available at: https://mitvedicsciences.edu.in/.../padma-bhushan-dr-vijay-p-bhatkar (Accessed: 19 July 2025)

QCToolkit (no date) Quantum Computer Simulator Toolkit – QSim. Available at: https://qctoolkit.in/ or https://web.archive.org/web/20250708050635/https://qctoolkit.in/ (Accessed: 19 July 2025)

Whizrobo (2024) PARAM 8000: India’s Indigenous Supercomputing Success Story. Available at: https://whizrobo.com/birth-of-param-8000-indias-first-super-computer/ (Accessed: 19 July 2025)