“India must urgently prepare itself for the quantum revolution to safeguard its security and national interests,” said Ajai Chowdhry, the co-founder of HCL and chairman of the mission governing board for India’s National Quantum Mission (NQM).
Announced in 2023, NQM aims to invest INR 6,000 crore to accelerate its quantum technology capabilities. Quantum computing is often seen as the Holy Grail of modern computing due to its potential to revolutionise data encryption and processing speeds, making traditional encryption methods obsolete.
For this, the government recently announced a collaboration with major IT services firms like TCS, HCL, and Tech Mahindra to develop quantum technologies under the INR 6,000 crore scheme. This initiative will support Indian startups and scientists in the emerging quantum field.
“We want them to do research on quantum technologies because there’s a huge amount of algorithms required for quantum,” said Chowdhry.
A report by Itihaasa Research and Digital, co-founded by former Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan, highlights the global landscape of quantum investments. The top 12 countries have collectively invested around $38.6 billion, with China leading the way at $15 billion.
In contrast, India’s investment stands at a mere $0.74 billion.
“China has an enormous number of publications in the area of quantum technology,” pointed out Ajay K Sood, principal scientific advisor to the government of India. Tech giants like Google, IBM, and Intel have collectively invested billions in quantum computing.
While India has published only 1,711 research papers on quantum, China published 12,110, which is seven times more than India. Moreover, India has 82,110 graduates in quantum technology while China produced 57,693.
“The elephant in the room is that … [other than] a few top tier institutions there is a scarcity of faculty to train students in quantum technologies,” read the recent report.
Private Sector Needs to Step Up
“Can China break the cryptography that India employs? That is a point of worry,” noted Chowdhry. The gap between the two nations is evident, with China being at least five years ahead of India in quantum.
India’s largest quantum computer, with 6 to 7 superconducting qubits, is being developed at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), in collaboration with DRDO and TCS. “With the launch of the National Quantum Mission, India is gearing up to develop not only quantum software but also state-of-the-art quantum computing hardware,” said Rajamani Vijayaraghavan, associate professor at TIFR.
India aims to develop 100-qubit computers within the next five years.
IIT Bombay’s partnership with TCS to develop the country’s first Quantum Diamond Microchip Imager is a significant step forward. This tool will enhance the precision in examining semiconductor chips, reduce chip failures, and improve the energy efficiency of electronic devices.
The plan is to mentor and seed-fund 50 startups already working in this field. “The next thing that we are working on is to get startups involved. There are close to 50 startups already working in this area. We will provide them mentorship through these thematic hubs. We will also look at providing them some initial seed funding,” said Chowdhry.
India is Not Starting From Scratch
The VP of IBM Quantum, Jay Gambetta, recently said that India has the second-highest open access to quantum computing, which is about 77,000. He said that India has the opportunity to become the leader in quantum computing in areas such as energy, sustainability, and agriculture, among others.
To bolster this, ISRO also has a partnership with Raman Research Institute for building quantum communication technology, which is still under process.
“A bank or an electrical grid in India can be attacked by an adequate quantum computer sitting in China. We must start working on making our country quantum secure.
“We will work with different agencies in the government to make them aware that something like this has to be done. Alternatively, the RBI should start working on creating a policy to make all banks secure on this front,” said Chowdhry.
India’s quantum mission includes plans to develop its own quantum computers. “In the period that we don’t have a quantum computer, we’ll buy a few for research work. But we are not going to use quantum computers only on the cloud because they are very expensive,” Chowdhry added.
