After a delay of nearly four years, the National Quantum Mission is set to take off with multiple initiatives including setting up a grant for start-ups

that need funding ranging ₹10-50 crore, launching India’s first quantum computer achieving computation of 6 qubits over the next few months, and setting up four companies under section 8 to undertake various activities under the mission. These companies will be run under the aegis of premier institutes like Indian Institute of Technology or the Indian Institute of Sciences.

Four verticals

• The mission will be setting up four Section 8 companies across the four verticals of quantum technologies that the mission wants to incubate namely – computing, communication, measurement and sensing.
• These Section 8 companies will be run under the aegis of premier institutes like Indian Institute of Technology or the Indian Institute of Sciences.
• The institutes have been shortlisted and the announcements will be made soon. While the mission struggled to spend its previous corpus of funds announced in 2020, since January of this year there is clear momentum in the dispersal of funds.
• The mission has received approximately 385 proposals from scientists, institutes and quantum startups keen to develop cutting edge quantum technologies.
• India’s foray into advancing its quantum capabilities has been in the works for nearly four years with limited results.
• The union government announced its plans to dedicate nearly ₹8,000 crore for developing indigenous quantum technologies, however no further progress was made.
• The mission is soon to announce the four thematic hubs of the mission in the coming months. These hubs will run independently as Section 8 companies and will appoint their own CEOs.
• Quantum computers harness the spooky physics of quantum mechanics to unlock computation that is vastly different from even the latest supercomputers.
• The Department of Science and Technology was investing into quantum computing even before announcing the mission as a part of its “Pre NQM” programme called the QuEST.
• In another project, DRDO and TIFR have also been working on building a 6-qubit quantum computer.

Goal of the mission

• The goal of the mission is to establish a quantum computer with a computation of 20-50 qubits in the next three years, 50-100 qubits in the next five years and 50-1000 qubits in the next 10 years.
• To put these computational capabilities in context, on average internationally quantum computers have processing capabilities of 20-50 qubits at present.
• It is essential for India to have its own homegrown quantum computer. China, for instance, has the highest investment numbers by state into quantum computing surpassing even the US.
• These emerge as big threats for our national security if China ever chooses to use its computing capabilities to target critical infrastructure in India, such as our electrical grids or financial infrastructure.
• The mission is expected to deliver results in the field of quantum communication as well where they will likely lean on private start-ups.