Editorial: A quantum jump for India
The recent successful demonstration of a 1,000-kilometre quantum communication network using indigenous technology reflects a major leap for India
In the present digitised world, the threat of cyberattacks is a major concern for governments across the world. Insulating sensitive national security-related data from such attacks is a big challenge. Quantum communication is the emerging area of technology that makes encryption unbreakable and has wide applications in securing data in strategic sectors such as defence, finance, and telecommunications. The recent successful demonstration of a 1,000-kilometre quantum communication network using indigenous technology reflects a major leap for India in harnessing the benefits of this innovative field. As part of the National Quantum Mission (NQM), the landmark feat was achieved in less than two years. Developed using indigenous technology from QNu Labs, a start-up nurtured by the mission, this deployment ranks among the longest quantum key distribution (QKD) systems worldwide, strengthening India’s quantum-safe security infrastructure. The achievement surpasses early-stage expectations and puts India on track to achieve its target of a 2,000-km quantum communication network. The development is expected to strengthen India’s secure communication capabilities across defence, financial systems and critical infrastructure. Additionally, the technology is designed to work across challenging terrains, including underwater and underground networks, expanding its potential civilian and strategic applications. Buoyed by the success, the government has expanded startup support under the mission, adding nine new ventures, taking the total number of supported startups to 17. The newly supported startups are working on areas ranging from quantum biosensors for disease detection to quantum positioning systems and precision electronic systems.
The latest development comes against the backdrop of scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully demonstrating quantum entanglement-based free-space secure communication over a distance of more than one kilometre via an optical link in June last year. This marked a new quantum era in the country. In April 2023, the Centre launched the Rs 6,000-crore National Quantum Mission with the development of homegrown quantum computers being one of its major objectives. Quantum communication takes advantage of the laws of quantum physics to protect data. These laws allow particles—typically photons of light for transmitting data along optical cables—to take on a state of superposition, which means they can represent multiple combinations of 1 and 0 simultaneously. The particles are known as quantum bits, or Qubits. Efforts are now being made by some nations and big tech companies to take advantage of this property to create networks for transmitting highly sensitive data based on a process called quantum key distribution, or QKD. These networks are ultra-secure. This may sound like stuff straight from science fiction, but it is a real method that involves transmitting data wholly in quantum form. The approach relies on a quantum phenomenon known as entanglement. Quantum teleportation works by creating pairs of entangled photons and then sending one of each pair to the sender of data and the other to a recipient.
