Quantum technology can also find applications in medicine, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, security, employment generation & navigation
Photo: PIB India / Youtube_ The Centre has launched the National Quantum Mission with a budget of Rs 6,003 crore, Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, said at a press briefing on April 19, 2023.
The mission will aim to seed, nurture and scale up scientific and industrial resource and development programmes, and create a vibrant and innovative ecosystem for quantum technology.
The timeline of the mission is 2023-24 to 2030-31, he added.
Quantum technology can also find applications in medicine, the healthcare sector, pharmaceuticals, security, employment generation and navigation.
Six ministries — Department of Space, Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Information, Department of Telecommunication, and Department of Science and Technology — will be involved in this mission.
As part of the mission, four thematic hubs will be set up in top academic and national research and development institutes in the domains of quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing as well as metrology and quantum materials and devices.
“The National Quantum Mission will give India a ‘quantum jump’ in the world,” said Jitendra Singh, Union minister for science and technology.
Only six countries — the United States, Canada, Austria, Finland, China and France — are currently working on it.
It is still in the research and development stage in those countries, he added.
Quantum technology uses the laws of quantum mechanics. Unlike classical computers that use zeroes and ones (bits and bytes), quantum technology is atom-based. It uses quantum bits (qubits), which can be in a combination of zero and one simultaneously.
“Quantum technology makes information processing faster, more authentic, more precise, more secure,” Singh noted.
Public Key Cryptography keeps information secure. It includes a public and private key. The public key is used to encrypt data, while the private key is used to unlock the information.
Public and private keys are linked in a mathematical relationship. If an intruder decides to break into private information, they must solve certain mathematical problems, such as finding prime factors of large numbers.
With classical computers, it may be possible to crack this puzzle after multiple trials, Singh explained. “But this is almost impossible with quantum. One study said if we experiment with quantum technology, it may take three lakh thousand years to crack it,” he added.
The Centre plans to extend the range in phases. It will be up to 1,500 kilometres in three years and 2,000 km in five years. This will be satellite-based.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to use satellites for quantum communication, whose applications lie in cryptography, the science of securing private information.
This activity will be a part of the National Quantum Mission, DK Singh, deputy director, human spaceflight and advanced technology area, Space Applications Centre, ISRO, previously told Down To Earth.
Information can also be transmitted through optic fibres. They expect to accomplish 300 km in three years, 500 km in five years and 2,000 km in eight years.
The minister said they plan to scale up from 50-1,000 qubits in eight years.
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