Thursday, April 20, 2023

Cabinet clears ₹6k-cr plan to scale up quantum research | Latest News India | Times Of Ahmedabad

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Quantum Mission (NQM) with a target to scale up scientific and industrial research and development for quantum technologies, at an estimated cost of over 6,000 crore in the next eight years.

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HT Image

The mission aims to place India in an elite club of nations that have developed quantum computing, senior officials of the ministry of science and technology said. Currently, only six other countries – the United States, Finland, Austria, China, Canada and France – are working in the field of developing quantum computing, the officials said.

Union minister of state science and technology Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday said that the launch of the National Quantum Mission will give India a “quantum leap in the field”.

“In most technology developments, India has been a follower. But with the approval of the mission, India will be among the first few countries in the world to take charge in developing the quantum technology,” Singh said.

The minister said that the Cabinet has approved 6,003.65 crore for the mission in the next eight years, and the mission will be advanced in phases.

Singh said that the first step in the mission would be to form a governing body, which will oversee the progress and act as a primary link between the government, industry partners, research bodies and start-ups working in the field.

Quantum technology (QT) is based on the principles of quantum mechanics developed in the early 20th century to describe nature at the scale of atoms and elementary particles. QT also includes quantum sensors, which use the sensitivity of quantum systems to measure things like gravity, magnetic fields, and temperature with unprecedented accuracy. This technology can be manifested through practical application in secure communication, disaster management through better prediction, computing, simulation, chemistry, health care, cryptography, imaging, among others.

Quantum computing, meanwhile, uses the principles of quantum mechanics to process information much faster than classical computers. In classical computing, information is processed using bits (represented with a 0 or a 1). In quantum computing, however, information is processed using quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in a state of superposition – which have the ability to represent both the 0 and 1 at the same time. Using this quantum superposition, quantum computers are able to mimic several classical computers working in parallel.

This ability makes quantum computers extremely powerful when solving certain kinds of problems like finding prime factors of large numbers and searching large databases. The prime factorisation quantum algorithm has important implications for security as it can be used to break RSA encryption, which is a public-key cryptosystem that is widely used for secure data transmission.

“There are nearly 20 institutes in India currently that are preparing for a deep dive into the quantum world that holds the secrets for developing exciting technologies for computing, communication, cryptography and many more,” the minister said.

The Centre, in the 2020 Union Budget, had announced a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications (NM-QTA) with a total budget outlay of 8,000 crore for a period of five years to be implemented by the department of science and technology (DST).

India has set a target of developing intermediate scale quantum computers with 20-50 physical qubits within three years, 50-100 qubits in five years and 50-1,000 qubits in eight years, in various platforms like superconducting and photonic technology, explained Akhilesh Gupta, senior advisor at DST and secretary, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).

In November 2022, IBM unveiled its latest quantum computer Osprey, which has a 433-qubit processor that is three times more powerful than its predecessor. Several other private players including Google, Microsoft and Amazon, along with some nation states, are also investing heavily in quantum technologies.

“India will also be developing satellite-based secure quantum communications between two ground stations over a range of 2,000km within India, as well as long distance secure quantum communications with other countries,” said Gupta. Experts say that a secured quantum communication network will help India get a strategic advantage over data infiltrators and ensure the safety of state documents and data.

He said currently, only six other countries including the US, Finland, Austria, China, Canada and France are working in the field of developing quantum computing, but these are also in the R&D stage. “We are not completely new in this field. Our agencies have done a lot of work around quantum communication. This will be the first time that India will be taking the lead in developing a technology,” he added.

Dr M Vidyasagar, fellow of The Royal Society, SERB National Science Chair and professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, said that India’s entry into the field of quantum technologies, is a welcome step.

“Quantum computing is a futuristic technology, and if we wait to observe its benefits from the work of other countries, we will have to play catch up. So, this is the right time to get into the field. India currently has the expertise for developing ‘post-quantum’ cryptographic algorithms to create designs that are invulnerable to quantum computers, but large investment is required in the field of developing the hardware. Work in the field of quantum technology will also lead to the development of a whole bunch of other technologies in the future,” he said.


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