Quantum tech demo by DRDO
Source: By Sushant Kulkarni: The Indian Express
In a crucial development for quantum technology in India, a joint team of experts from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi demonstrated Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link for a distance of over 100 kilometres.
Here’s what this means and how to look at it in the context of developments in the field of quantum technologies, at home and across the world.
The latest development
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on 23 March 2022 that a joint team of scientists and engineers from DRDO and IIT Delhi successfully demonstrated Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link for a distance of over 100 km between Prayagraj and Vindhyachal in Uttar Pradesh. The technological breakthrough was achieved over the commercial-grade optical fibre already available in the field.
“With this success, the country has demonstrated indigenous technology of secure key transfer for bootstrapping military-grade communication security key hierarchy. This technology will enable security agencies to plan a suitable quantum communication network with indigenous technology backbone,” said the MoD. The ministry said that for this demonstration performance parameters were closely monitored and were found to be repetitively within the reported international standards.
QKD is primarily a mechanism to undertake secure communication, which utilises a cryptographic protocol involving various components of quantum mechanics. The technology enables two communicating sides to come up with random secret keys shared by both of them and known exclusively to them, so only they can use it to encrypt and decrypt messages, thus achieving a very highly-secure communication.
Secure communications are vital not just for the defence and strategic agencies across the globe but also for various civilian applications. The distribution of encryption keys is the crucial factor for this. Sharing of keys over the air or wired links requires encryption, which in turn requires encryption keys to be pre-shared. Quantum-based communication offers a robust solution to sharing the keys securely. DRDO has undertaken multiple projects for the development of this technology.
Developments by DRDO in the past
Scientists have said that the latest test further proves India’s capabilities over longer distances and amidst different environmental factors.
A similar demonstration was held over a shorter distance in the first week of December 2020, when the technology was tested for communication between two DRDO facilities in Hyderabad—the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) and Research Centre Imarat (RCI)—over a distance of 12 km.
Then in the last week of December 2020, DRDO Young Scientist Laboratory for Quantum Technologies (DYSL-QT), a DRDO facility based in Mumbai, developed a Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG), which has the ability to detect random quantum events and convert those into a stream of binary digits. The QRNG system developed by DYSL-QT passed the global randomness testing standards of NIST and Die-harder Statistical Test Suites at the speed of around 150 kbps after post-processing. The generated random numbers were also evaluated and verified using DRDO’s indigenously developed Randomness Testing Statistical Test Suite of Scientific Analysis Group. With this development, India has entered the club of countries that have the technology to achieve the generation of random numbers based on the Quantum Phenomenon.
How to look at it in the context of developments at home and abroad?
Most of the large economies and defence powers across the world have in the recent past formulated dedicated plans for the development of quantum technologies. These countries include the US, Canada, several European countries, China, Japan and South Korea. India has seen significant policy decisions and budget allocation for the sector.
However, senior DRDO scientists and defence officials say that developments in India need to be seen especially in the context of several claims made by China. China has said that it has achieved multiple breakthroughs in the quantum technology domain that included the world’s first quantum satellite, the world’s first optical quantum computing machine prototype and also a 2000 km long quantum communication link between Beijing and Shanghai. China’s 13th and 14th five-year plans give high priority to quantum technology. Experts have said that in the context of China’s progress—or claims thereof—in quantum technology, India’s efforts, though significant, are scattered in nature.
An international symposium on Quantum Information Technology held in Pune in 2019 saw participation of key defence, civilian and academic and strategic entities of the country. What India’s National Cyber Security Coordinator, Lieutenant General Rajesh Pant had said at this 2019 conference is very significant. “My concern is China leading the race. It established the first Quantum Satellite Network and distributed entangled photons between three terrestrial base stations separated by 1200 km. Quantum is at the heart of China’s 13th five-year plan. Chinese dominated in Quantum Computing patents in the last four years. As if this was not enough, the global investments in quantum computing are also growing,” said Pant.
“The US National Quantum Initiative Act has assured $1.2 Billion, the European Union – 1 billion Euros. What is the situation in India? We find a mix of private and government sector investments. We have companies working on Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) aspect, post-quantum cryptography and Artificial Intelligence platform on quantum. DRDO is also doing very significant work as also the Department of Science Technology, which has launched a quantum enabled science and technology project. But I find many gaps in the Indian scenario. There is an absence of a quantum roadmap. There is no visibility in the quantum efforts and successes. And there is a lack of required skill power. As the National Cyber Security Coordinator this is a cause of concern for me,” he added.
DRDO scientists, who had participated in the conference, say that while India has come a long way in quantum technology since 2019, more can be done to bring all the efforts together.
Meanwhile, in two very significant developments in the sector, India’s Union Budget of 2020-21 saw the allocation of Rs 8,000 crore towards the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications and in December 2021, the Indian Army, with support from the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) established the Quantum Lab at Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow to spearhead research and training in this key developing field.
