Quantum technologies

Story hook

In December 2017, a Chinese satellite called Micius beamed a pair of entangled photons from low Earth orbit down to two ground stations in Tibet and Yunnan — 1,200 km apart. The two photons, though split across mountains and clouds, behaved as if they were one object. Measure the polarisation of one, and the other instantly "knows" — a feat Einstein once dismissed as spooky action at a distance. China had just demonstrated satellite-based quantum key distribution, the world's first.

A year later, sitting in a Cabinet meeting room in Delhi, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a five-year ₹8,000-crore National Mission on Quantum Technologies & Applications (NM-QTA) in the Union Budget. The Indian establishment had understood what Micius meant: in the second quantum revolution — the one that turns weird quantum behaviour into useful technology — the country that builds the first reliable quantum computer, the first unbreakable quantum network, and the first ultra-precise quantum sensors will set the rules for cryptography, finance, defence and drug discovery for decades.

By April 2023, the Cabinet had upgraded the plan to a full National Quantum Mission (NQM) with ₹6,003 crore over eight years (2023-31) and four flagship hubs. India was officially in the race.

Why this matters for UPSC

Quantum technologies are the highest-priority emerging tech in UPSC's S&T table since 2020 — at least one Prelims question per year on NQM/quantum computing terminology, frequent Mains stems on dual-use implications and post-quantum cryptography, and almost guaranteed Interview probes on whether India can catch up with USA, China and EU. The topic crosses into Internal Security (cryptography), IR (export controls under Wassenaar) and Economy (semiconductor linkage).