The Government of India, on April 19, 2023, approved the National Quantum Mission with an estimate of Rs 6003 crore for a period of eight years.
Announcing the decision, the Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said- “The decision is going to give India a quantum jump in the field.”
India is going to be at par with six global countries researching quantum technology. Most countries are in a research and development phase. Nations such as- the US, China, France, Austria and Finland are in the R&D Stage and are yet to venture into the application stage of technology.
India will be the last entrant in the elite club.
As per the National Quantum Mission, the Government said that four thematic hubs will be installed in different institutions across the country to boost research and development in the field. The Department of Science and Technology will lead the mission through a mission director.
The Government will form a mission secretariat with a governing body to steer the work under the leadership of scientists from the quantum field. The Mission Technology Research Council will work as a scientific advisory body for governing body.
The Indian Government will outline the eight-year-long framework for the mission and said that it would work at developing 20-50 Quantum Computers and quantum communication over a distance of 2000km in the next three years.
“As the technology is evolving, understanding is evolving, and so are the applications. In the area of therapeutics, healthcare and security, the use is being realized,” the minister added.
In 2022, the ISRO demonstrated satellite-based communications when the scientists from Ahmedabad-based
Space Application Centre and Physical Research Laboratory successfully conducted quantum entanglement using real-time Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).
“This will place India as a frontline nation concerning information and technology. This will have use beyond physical and engineering and into healthcare and other fields,” Dr Singha of ISRO said.
Quantum Technology is a field of physics and engineering that studies and applies the principle of quantum mechanics to develop new technologies. Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that describes the behaviour of matter and energy at the microscopic scale where laws of classical physics do not apply.
Quantum technologies include various types, such as quantum computing, cryptography and quantum sensing.
While the classical computer is based on transistors, the quantum computer works on atoms. Quantum Computers use quantum bits (Qubits) instead of classical bits to perform calculations.
The main advantage of the quantum computer is that it can solve problems much faster with more authenticity.
Quantum technology offers unique security regarding encryption, making communication hackproof. It is one of the safest ways of connecting two places with a high level of code and quantum cryptography that cannot be decrypted or broken by another entity.
If the hacker tries to crack the message in quantum computing, it changes its form so that it alerts the sender and causes the message to be deleted or altered.
Meanwhile, quantum sensing uses the principles of quantum mechanics to develop new types of sensors with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy.
These sensors can measure physical quantities such as temperature, magnetic fields, and gravitational waves more precisely than classical sensors. This technology has vast utilisation in astronomy and astrophysics and in solving riddles of the universe.
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