Ajay Sood: National Quantum Mission to be launched ‘very soon’, says PSA Ajay Sood

A national quantum mission having four verticals, quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensors and metrology, and quantum materials and devices, would be launched very soon, Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) Ajay Kumar Sood has said. Addressing a session at the Global Tech Summit hosted by Carnegie India, Sood said quantum communication is already something that has moved quite ahead and it will be the first thing which will be in public service before the other three technologies.

He said the inter-ministerial mission will be launched very soon.
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“It has many departments which are participating but it will be led by the Department of Science and Technology,” he said.

He further said four clusters or hubs will run the four verticals.
“These hubs would be run by four different institutes which will be selected by competition… that hub is not only responsible for work in their institute but in the country as a whole and in that framework start-ups are an integral part…

“So what we are saying in our mission document is that there will not be isolation that first you do R&D, publish papers and then hunt for start-ups, no we are saying you take these people along there are 20 start-ups in quantum domain in India and we are taking them along in hub model,” he said.

Asserting that international collaboration a must in this field, Sood said quantum frontier is on everyone’s agenda.

The National Quantum Mission scheme will be implemented by the DST under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The focus areas for the mission will be addressing national priorities through fundamental science, translation and technology development.

In 2020, Rs 8000 crore was allocated in Budget to a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications (NM-QTA) for a period of five years.