In a race to be among the leaders in the quantum era, India launched the National Quantum Mission, aiming to build R&D hubs to benefit areas including communication, health, finance, and energy.
According to the Press Information Bureau of India, India's cabinet approved the National Quantum Mission with a budget outlay of INR60 billion (US$730 million) between fiscal 2024 (April 2023 to March 2023) and fiscal 2031 to seed, nurture, and scale up scientific and industrial R&D and create a quantum technology ecosystem.
Times of India quoted Jitendra Singh, India's science and technology minister, saying that the mission will give India a quantum leap, helping India become the sixth country to have a dedicated quantum mission after the US, Austria, Finland, France, and China.
According to the official press release, the mission aims to develop intermediate-scale quantum computers with 50-1,000 physical qubits during the period in platforms such as superconducting and photonic technology. The mission will develop satellite-based secure quantum communications within India and long-distance secure quantum communications between India and other countries.
The mission plans to develop highly-sensitive magnetometers in atomic systems and atomic clocks, support the design and synthesis of quantum materials, and develop single photo sources/detectors and entangled photo sources.
India will set up four T-Hubs (Thematic Hubs) in top academic and national R&D institutes in four domains, including quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing & metrology, and quantum materials & devices. India believes the mission will benefit communications, health, finance, energy, drug design, and space applications.
India is trying to play catch-up when major economies are racing to achieve quantum hegemony, as quantum technology is crucial in civilian as well as military applications. According to Statista, China accounted for 59.7% of global quantum sensing patents, 46.2% of global quantum communications patents, and 54.1% of global quantum computing patents from 2000 to 2021.
India still lags behind China in quantum technology. According to The Economic Times, China launched its first QKD (Quantum Key Distribution) satellite which can transmit data between two ground stations 2,600 km apart. The Indian Space Research Organization demonstrated its QKD transmission technology over a distance of 300 km in March 2021.
