Plans afoot to develop quantum tech-driven network to safeguard India’s digital assets, economy: DST secy Abhay Karandikar

Prof Abhay Karandikar: Launched in April 2023, NQM has initiated many quantum technology-based initiatives across research and development centres, academia and industry. This mission aims at steering the Indian academia, technologists and industries, and startups towards building an ecosystem favouring quantum technology-based innovation across the four technology domains – quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing, and quantum materials and technology.

There is promising work towards developing the technology required for quantum sensing underway at IIT-Bombay and IIT-Kanpur. At IIT-Madras, they are working on developing the technology required for quantum communication. We are engaging with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), whose requirements from quantum computing, quantum communications and quantum sensing technologies are more for strategic purposes.

Startups, too, are joining hands in this mission with the DST. We are actively engaging and supporting them. So far, we have supported eight startups and will engage with more in future. Bengaluru-based QpiAI recently launched the country’s most powerful quantum computers, featuring 25 superconducting qubits. Over the next two to three years, it would be expanded to 64 qubits, and scaled up further to 100 qubits, 500 qubits and more.

Research institutions and industry are on track in quantum technology development. What other initiatives are proposed to support this ecosystem?

Prof Abhay Karandikar: Capacity building is one of the main focuses for creating an ecosystem conducive to the development of quantum technology. Towards that, the DST plans to support 75 government and private engineering colleges in the country with Rs 1 crore each to establish teaching labs. At these labs, there will be (minor) courses on quantum technology offered to undergraduate students. We plan to engage with researchers and experts already in the field to help design this course. Thereafter, there will also be sessions to train-the-trainers so that we can ramp up the number of teachers offering this course.

We need trained personnel who can comfortably work in developing and working with quantum algorithms. These will have wide-scale applications in fields like drug discovery and material sciences, among others.

In the upcoming Call for Proposals, we urge startups to work on developing hardware for quantum technology. Such hardware will particularly find applications in quantum sensing and quantum communication.

What is the recently constituted Task Force meant to achieve?

Prof Abhay Karandikar: India is among the leading countries making billions of digital transactions, including over the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), every month. Such large volumes of digital transactions constantly face the threat from cyber crooks indulging in online fraud and organised cyber attacks, siphoning of money and performing digital arrests to harass users. To safeguard our economy and overall digital assets, the DST has proposed to develop a safe network by deploying quantum technology. It has formed a multi-sectoral Task Force which will design this framework, its adoption and set the road map for its implementation.

The first meeting with the Task Force was held in New Delhi in September. The consultation meeting included multiple stakeholders, including representatives from banks, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), industry, and academia, among others. The framework will be indigenous and use quantum-safe technology. At the recently held India Mobile Congress in Delhi, we called upon other stakeholders, including those in the telecom sector, to join hands in developing this framework under the NQM.