WITH the launch of the National Quantum Mission (NQM), India has joined the select club of countries – US, China, France, Austria and Finland – researching quantum technology. “The decision is going to give India a quantum jump in one of the most advanced fields of research and technology,” said Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh while announcing the launch of the over Rs 6,000-crore mission.
The move heralds a milestone in India’s rise as a scientific power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Our own technology:
“In the past, India had adopted technologies developed abroad and implemented them here. The NQM is the only mission, so far, wherein Indian scientists will develop our own technology,” said Akhilesh Gupta of the Department of Science and Technology, who heads the NQM.
The mission will place India as a frontline nation when information & technology are concerned. This will have the use beyond physical and engineering field; in healthcare and other fields as well.
The stage for the launch of the MQM was set by the success of another mission – the National Supercomputer Mission (NSM) – launched by PM Modi during his first term.
Supercomputer:
Although indigenous development of supercomputers began in 1980, India had only four super computers till the launch of the NSM in 2015. Today, the country is home to 23 supercomputers – powerful computers that are primarily used for scientific and engineering work.
The superfast machines are in use in the field of computational chemistry, material science, quantum mechanics, and more, with nearly 5,000 users executing close to 8 lakh jobs on them. India has also started building hardware required for supercomputers.
The network of research institutions, in collaboration with industry, is scaling up the technology and manufacturing capability to make more and more parts in India.
In Phase-I of the NSM, 30 per cent of value addition was done in India, and this has been scaled up to 40 per cent in Phase-II. The country has developed an indigenous server, Rudra, which can meet the highperformance computing needs of Government bodies and PSEs.
Hierarchical link:
With the launch of the NQM, Indian researchers can look beyond the age of supercomputers. The link between supercomputers and quantum computers is hierarchical. Quantum computers use quantum bits (qubits) instead of classical bits to perform calculations.
The advantage of quantum computing is that it can solve problems much faster, and with more authenticity. But supercomputers continue to be highly relevant even in the era of quantum computing.
