India to invest in quantum technologies
India has announced a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications, to benefit from a budget of approximately US$1 billion over five years. To be implemented by the Department of Science and Technology, the mission will ‘help develop and bring quantum computers, secured communications through fibre and free space, quantum encryption and crypt-analysis and associated technologies within reach in the country’. It will also help prepare a skilled workforce, boost research, and encourage entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem development in the area of quantum technologies. The mission’s areas of focus will be in fundamental science, translation, technology development, human and infrastructural resource generation, and innovation and start-ups to address issues concerning national priorities.