Everybody is talking about Quantum computers these days . What are India’s efforts towards quantum computers?India too is developing a quantum computer and has a long term plan .The Department of Science and technology is actively working on the same . If you want a super simple explanation on quantum computers working ,watch my video by clicking here. No proper resource on this topic on the internet so i had to do a lot of searching and contacts. First jumping to the topic lets quickly learn which countries are involved in quantum computer development.

Here is a video on this article topic in Hindi :

America , China ,Japan, Russia,Australia and some European countries are involved . They are spending a lot of money .America and China in particular have allotted billions of dollars to research on quantum computers . But money doesn’t matter as much in this case as this article explains at the end .

Indian Quantum theoretical Research

 

When it comes to quantum computing research we have 2 fields i.e. Theoretical and hardware .The hardware of part of India’s story is really interesting but lets quickly learn about our Theoretical development .There is a lot of cool and important theoretical development happening in India .Below is a image with the list of institutes working on theoretical quantum computing .The list was sourced via Quora and other media articles.

First TIFR Tata institute of Fundamental research which you will very well know if you watched my top Indian telescopes video . They have set up a lab called The Quantum Measurement and Control Laboratory (QuMaC) at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research dedicated to investigating the quantum phenomena in superconducting circuits.

the following is an exerpt from Quora answered by Varsha Lal

1. Notably, the most fundamental works are done by Prof P. Ray and Prof. B. K. Chakrabarti of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata on Quantum Annealing and their work is foundation for many present day Quantum Computing.
2. I am also impressed by the works of Indian Institute of Science Education and research, Mohali, Punjab their work on Photonic quantum memory is very promising.
3. The work of Dr. Amit Ray of Compassionate AI Lab in collaboration with USA universities on Quantum Artificial Intelligence is gaining huge momentum across the world.
4. The work of Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, INDIA on Optimization of Circuits for qubit Quantum Computers is also encouraging.
5. Good works on Quantum Computing is also visible at Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.

Now lets talk about the hardware part. Government in 2017 started something called QuST which stands for  Quantum Information Science and Technology . By end of 2017 department of science and technology invited applications for this . It had the following objectives:

Broad Objectives of QuST:

• Development and demonstration of quantum computers.
• Development and demonstration of quantum communication & cryptography.
• Development of quantum-enhanced and inspired technology.
• Development of advanced mathematical quantum techniques, algorithms and theory of
quantum information systems.

Broad Thematic Areas:

• Quantum information technologies with photonic devices.
• Quantum information technologies with solid state, nitrogen vacancy, Magnetic
Resonance.
• Quantum information technologies with ion-trap and optical-lattice devices.
• Quantum information technologies with superconducting qubit devices and quantum
dot devices.
• Mathematical and Fundamental aspects of quantum computation and quantum
information.

But the main things suppose to come out of the first phase which is suppose to be 3 years .These include the following :

1. Design of quantum register.
2. 4-qubit quantum computer initially and possibility to scale up no of qubits.
3. Gate implementation and quantum algorithm realization.
4. 4-qubit quantum entangled state.
5. Generation of entangled states between two locations.
6. Multiparty entanglement generation, detection, and quantification.
7. Decoherence effects on entanglement generation, development of methods to overcome
the same, and their demonstration.
8. Demonstration of Quantum teleportation, remote state preparation, quantum dense
coding.
9. Demonstration of quantum key generation between two locations and its security
analysis.

The budget for the first phase is around 80 crore for 3 years my sources said . 2nd phase budget will be more than 300 crore coming from ISRO , department of atomic energy and DRDO .but here’s the problem . We had literally no update on this after 31 December 2017 . Recently some news came on this but not much details .

Indian Quantum Computing Progress

I wanted to know the current development state of this program . Since its not available on the internet i decided to file a RTI to the Department of Science and Technology. And that is why this video got delayed .The reply was interesting . below is my reply:

The objectives remained the same . 27 numbers of proposals were received against the open Call for Proposals under QuST. The receipt
proposals were segregated into the following four thematic groups based on the physical qubit used:
a. Quantum Information Technologies with Photon Devices
b. Quantum Information Technologies with Nitrogen Vacancies & Magnetic Resonance devices
c. Quantum Information Technologies with Atom-trap & Optical-lattice devices
d. Quantum Information Technologies with Superconducting & Quantum-dot devices

Finally, Apex Committee has recommended /accepted 51 number of proposals for funding support from
DST. Being confidential at this juncture, we will not be in a position to share the proposals. However,
once sanctioned, we will provide the list. Still the proposals are under processing. None have started the
work. The free space communication is one in which ISRO is interested apart from other Quantum
technologies. Also, ISRO has agreed to facilitate and provide their infrastructure for testing and
demonstration of free space communication, if required. Estimated time for completion of the projects
is 3 years from the date of sanction. Still, the proposals under processing and hence, final budget is not
known. All most, all the education institutes /Universities and R&D labs, who have expertise in this field
are involved.

when will India’s quantum computer be ready?

if the schedules are maintained and the work is complete without any  problems it should be 2022/23. India will get its own quantum computer by 2022/23 .how cool does it sound?

Before you go to the comments and start typing that Americas and china’s budget is way bigger than ours and how they have started long before us .let me tell you one thing .money is not equal to knowledge .more money doesn’t mean a better product . Especially for a new field like quantum computing developing a knowledge base is very important. Remember Mangalyaan or chandrayaan missions from isro . And I’m sure government will definitely increase budget if needed just like they did for manned space mission. Do share this article . Let people know that India too is developing quantum computers . International media never mentions India in their article of quantum computers  which is unfair .

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