Cabinet nod for ‘Quantum Mission’

New Delhi: The central government on Wednesday approved the National Quantum Mission to nurture and scale up scientific and industrial research and development in quantum technology. The mission involves a cost of Rs6,003.65 crore from 2023-24 to 2030-31.

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,” Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh told reporters here. India will be the seventh country to have a dedicated quantum mission after the US, Austria, Finland, France, Canada and China.

“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,” he said.

He said 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.