Date: 12/12/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life; Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology;Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nanotechnology, biotechnology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Key phrases: Quantum computing, National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications, Quantum supremacy, Cyber Security, Quantum-Enabled Science and Technology (QuEST), ‘Quantum Computer Simulator (QSim) toolkit’, EinsteinRosen Bridge.

Context:

• Recently, quantum buzz originated from a research finding by a team of particle physicists in the United States claiming a kind of teleportation of quantum states within a quantum computer.
• The claim was deemed to be significant in the light of a 1935 paper by Albert Einstein and his associate Nathan Rosen that spoke of a hypothetical tunnel-like structure called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge or a wormhole, which could potentially connect to distinct points in space-time.

Global progress in quantum computing

• A recent presentation by IBM, one of the leading researchers in quantum computing, gave a glimpse of the current state of the quantum emerging technology area.
• According to IBM, most of the action in quantum computing is limited to laboratories and research problems.
• However the barriers seem to be consistently lowered with programming interfaces like the IBM Qiskit available over the cloud to interact with these emerging systems and to explore potential applications.

Indian progress in quantum computing

• Major steps being taken in India to catch up on the quantum computing race as mentioned by the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to GoI.
• National Quantum Mission, which will be an effort in the direction of coordinating fragmented research efforts is currently underway in India across verticals spanning quantum computing, quantum communications and related sensing technologies and materials science.
• With quantum key distribution ahead in the research, India will perhaps see advances in quantum communication before significant outcomes are realized in the other areas.
• Sustained funding is needed to keep research and development going.
• The National Quantum Mission would take a cluster approach to development integrating the 20 odd startups in this space and incubating many more along the way.

Challenges for India in quantum computing

• Skilling issues: The key to quantum success would be on developing and harnessing the necessary skills for the mission to take off and for India to catch up with other advanced nations.
• Complexity issues: Unlike traditional technology skills, PSA pointed out that the complexity with developing quantum technology skills is very high given the counterintuitive way in which quantum logic works.
• A good example of this complexity is a recent study published by a team in IIT Madras in collaboration with a team from Poland:
• They are able to adapt and propose a quantum logic based solution similar to the centuries old unsolvable problems articulated by Euler.
• Other Challenges:
  1. Technological availability: Consistent electrons at quantum scale get damaged as soon as exposed in the physical environment.
  2. Usage: Although Sycamore performed a benchmark test but it has no real-world use as of now and could take years or decades for the technology to be freely available
  3. Stability: Qubits are stable only at cryogenic temperatures, and only governments and large corporations can hope to keep a quantum computer on the premises
  4. Insecure communications: The dark side of quantum computing is the disruptive effect that it will have on cryptographic encryption, which secures communications and computers.
  5. Privacy: Encryption depends on very large prime numbers, which serve as the seeds from which cryptographic keys are generated and exchanged by the parties to a conversation. If the odds of encryption and decryption are evened by exponentially powerful computers, privacy online would be dead.

Steps taken by India in Quantum computing:

• India formally joined the race to quantum computing by establishing the National Mission for Quantum Technology and Applications in 2020.
• The Department of Science and Technology launched the Quantum-Enabled Science and Technology (QuEST) initiative to invest INR 80 crores to lay out infrastructure and to facilitate research in the field.
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) launched the ‘Quantum Computer Simulator (QSim) toolkit’ to provide the first quantum development environment to academicians, industry professionals, students, and the scientific community in India.
• This is an outcome of the budgetary outlay of INR 8000 crores to bolster quantum technology development and uptake in the country.

Conclusion

• To develop the ability to think in terms of quantum concepts of superposition and entanglement and to be able to apply the same towards problem solving will require starting early with students and bridging the gap in their minds between physics and computing while demystifying the underlying abstract mathematics.
• It would be prudent to develop a regulatory framework for quantum computing before it becomes widely available.
• It is a transformative technology whose future uses, across a wide spectrum of sectors from data analysis to geopolitics, cannot be fully anticipated.
• It would be useful to regulate quantum computing now, or at least define the limits of its legitimate use.

Source: Business Standard

Mains Question

Q. Explain the key concepts of Quantum computing along with its various applications. Discuss its significance in the Atma Nirbhar Bharat vision. (15 marks).