The National Quantum Mission has received a budgetary allocation of ₹427 crore for its revenue expenditure, compared with nil last year.
In the Budget speech for 2020-21, it was mentioned that the mission would be set up at a cost of ₹8,000 crore. On April 18, 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the setting up of the NQM at a cost of ₹6,003 crore, to be spent between 2023-24 and 2030-31.
“The Mission aims to seed, nurture and scale up scientific and industrial R&D and create a vibrant and innovative ecosystem in Quantum Technology (QT). This will accelerate QT-led economic growth, nurture the ecosystem in the country and make India one of the leading nations in the development of Quantum Technologies and Applications (QTA),” says a footnote to the expenditure budget of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Key objectives
The Mission’s objectives include developing intermediate-scale quantum computers with 50-1,000 physical qubits in 8 years in various platforms, including superconducting and photonic technology, the DST says on its website.
“Satellite-based secure quantum communications between ground stations over a range of 2,000 km within India, long-distance secure quantum communications with other countries, inter-city quantum key distribution over 2,000 km, as well as multi-node Quantum networks with quantum memories are some of the deliverables of the Mission,” it says.
Further, the Mission will focus on developing magnetometers with high sensitivity in atomic systems and atomic clocks for precision timing, communications, and navigation. It will also support the design and synthesis of quantum materials such as superconductors, novel semiconductor structures, and topological materials for the fabrication of quantum devices. Single photon sources/ detectors, and entangled photon sources will also be developed for quantum communications, sensing, and metrological applications.
Thematic hubs
Under the Mission, four thematic hubs are to be set up for quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing and metrology and quantum materials and devices. On January 20, a call for pre-proposals for setting up Thematic Hubs was launched. In the following month, a brainstorming session on the call for pre-proposals brought together about 400 quantum science researchers and quantum technologists (and 150 online participants) from all over India. Technical groups are to be constituted under each hub, with participation from multiple institutions.
On that occasion, Professor Ajay Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, noted that the Mission would “make definitive contributions to quantum technologies, along with quantum science.”
Prof Sood noted that the Mission was an “ambitious project” and India was making “significant investments” in it.
Prof. Urbasi Sinha, Quantum Information and Computing Lab, Raman Research Institute, said on April 13 (the World Quantum Day) that India had made significant progress in the secure quantum communications domain, “both in the fibre as well as free space domain, with several ground-based milestones achieved over the last few years.”
“Through the National Quantum Mission and beyond, we are looking forward to further leaps in long-distance quantum communications. We are aiming to have a country-wide free space quantum key distribution (QKD) network by using a satellite as a trusted node, as well as a fibre-based QKD network. We will also make advances towards multi-node quantum repeater networks for entanglement distribution-based quantum communication. Going forward, India envisages being a lead player in the quest for the global quantum internet, which would involve connecting India with other countries through quantum communication links,” Prof Sinha said in a press release.