The National Quantum Mission, approved by the government on Wednesday, will scale up scientific and industrial research and development in quantum technology and bolster India’s technology prowess, said officials and experts. The mission has an outlay of Rs 6,003.65 crore from 2023-24 to 2030-31 and will make India the sixth country to have a dedicated quantum mission after the US, Austria, Finland, France and China, science and technology minister Jitendra Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, tweeted saying, “quantum is the ‘third pillar’ of three emerging areas of semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum that India and Indian innovators should lead in,” and that this vision is “redefining India’s role and place in the future of technology.” The National Quantum Mission (NQM), approved at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will accelerate quantum technology-led economic growth and nurture the ecosystem in the country.

“NQM is going to give India a quantum jump in this arena,” Singh quipped.

CP Gurnani, CEO of TechMahindra tweeted, “A welcome move! The National Quantum Mission will accelerate India’s tech journey, boosting India’s ability and credibility in quantum computing. @tech_mahindra we are deeply invested in quantum and it’s encouraging to see the commitment & focus from the government”.

The new mission targets developing intermediate scale quantum computers with 50-1000 physical qubits in eight years in various platforms like superconducting and photonic technology, Singh explained.

Singh also said that satellite-based secure quantum communications between ground stations over a range of 2000 km within India, long distance secure quantum communications with other countries, inter-city quantum key distribution over 2000 km as well as multi-node quantum network with quantum memories are also some of the deliverables of the mission.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, cofounder, Infosys, and chairman, Axilor Ventures, tweeted, “Quantum mission will help India to leverage this disruptive technology uniquely to benefit our citizens.”Singh said the mission will help develop magnetometers with high sensitivity in atomic systems and atomic clocks for precision timing, communications and navigation.

K Vijay Raghavan, former principal scientific adviser to the Government of India, an emeritus professor and former director of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, tweeted, “Wonderful news: Quantum Mission. With the deep ocean mission, Space-, drones- and remote- sensing- policies, the supercomputing-, cyber-physical,- missions, the Thirty Meter Telescope, LIGO, the impending NRF, will advance fundamental research and applications in the coming years.”

Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru tweeted, “RRI is delighted at the launch of the National Quantum Mission. We look forward to continuing working for the nation in pathbreaking quantum technologies”. Urbasi Sinha who heads the Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) laboratory at RRI tweeted, “RRI has been at the forefront of quantum technology research in India. Personally worked on the DPR and I’m excited at the prospects for me as a researcher, for the institute and the nation.”

The mission can take the technology development ecosystem in the country to a globally competitive level. The mission would greatly benefit communication, health, financial and energy sectors as well as drug design, and space applications.

It will provide a huge boost to National priorities like Digital India, Make in India, Skill India and Stand-up India, Start-up India, Self-reliant India and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Nikhil Malhotra, Global Head, Makers Lab, Tech Mahindra, said, as part of the National Quantum Mission, the government must focus on four specific areas: Quantum Security or QKD based post quantum cryptography, Quantum Machine Learning, Quantum Sensing, and Quantum education.

“We already know that quantum keys, that use quantum principles, are secure and can resist attacks from hackers. However, there needs to be a fundamental change at the network level for infrastructure and hardware devices that generate these keys. This an area which must be looked into for defence-based installations, he said.

He further said quantum machine learning should be leveraged for drug discovery and chemical simulations, satellite placements — with the growing debris and satellites around Earth, quantum optimization techniques can help with satellite placements, weather analysis — quantum techniques can help in simulating and alleviating the rise in the temperature of Earth, and diffuse terrorist networks.

“As far as quantum sensing is concerned, a precise quantum hardware can be used to sense earthquakes and other geological events,” he said. In order to make India the hub of quantum, there must be a focus on imparting and improving education across all levels, Malhotra said on quantum education.