The Union Cabinet on Wednesday authorised the National Quantum Mission (NQM) at a cost of Rs.6,003.65 crore, giving India’s efforts to advance quantum technology a significant boost. Over the period of eight years (2023–24 to 2030–31), the mission will have specific milestones that must be met. The mission would strive to seed, foster, and scale up scientific and industry research and development, as well as establish a “vibrant and innovative” ecosystem in quantum technology in India, according to Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh, who was speaking at the cabinet briefing. According to him, this would foster India’s ecosystem, accelerate the economic growth driven by quantum technology, and position India as a leader in the development of quantum technologies and applications (QTA).
The US, Finland, Austria, France, China, and Canada are the six nations already engaged in the development of quantum technology. According to Singh, India is on par with these nations’ advancements in R&D.
The concepts of quantum mechanics, a physics theory that examines how matter and energy behave at their most fundamental level—at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles—are used in quantum technology. When the structure of the atom could not be explained by mechanical physics, the area of quantum mechanics was founded some 100 years ago, during the careers of Albert Einstein, Werner Karl Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger. The fundamental light switch and even semiconductors, lasers, Blu-ray, transistors, smartphones, USB drives, MRI machines, and electron microscopes all employ the same basic idea.
Even though they have yet to reach their full potential, quantum computers are substantially quicker than conventional computers at some tasks. Prototypes have been constructed in a number of nations, with the United States, China, and the Netherlands taking the lead. Consider having to look through a large phonebook to find a single name to grasp the possibilities of quantum computing. A quantum computer could search through the entire book at once, but a conventional computer would have to go at the pages one at a time. Additionally, it is far more secure and challenging to hack into. Akhilesh Gupta, Mission Chief and Senior Adviser in the Department of Science and Technology said on the sidelines of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday: “This is the first time that India is not borrowing a new technology from another country, rather, we are developing it ourselves.”
