NEW DELHI, October 15 — The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology, on Thursday formally announced the operational guidelines for the 'Quantum Mission Fellowship' (QMF) alongside approving four specialized Thematic Hubs (T-Hubs) under the ₹6,003-crore National Quantum Mission (NQM).
Under the consortium model, the four national T-Hubs have been anchored at premier academic centers: Quantum Computing at IISc Bengaluru, Quantum Communication at IIT Madras, Quantum Sensing and Metrology at IIT Bombay, and Quantum Materials and Devices at IIT Delhi. The competitive fellowship supports doctoral and postdoctoral researchers with international exchange grants and high-performance computing clusters.
NQM leadership underscored that the mission roadmap targets developing intermediate-scale quantum computers with 50 to 1,000 physical qubits across superconducting and trapped-ion architectures over an eight-year timeline, alongside operationalizing ground-to-satellite Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) links for strategic communications.
The foundational physics of quantum information science (quantum superposition, quantum entanglement, and the no-cloning theorem), the governance architecture of the National Quantum Mission, and post-quantum cryptographic standards represent essential themes across UPSC Civil Services (GS-III: Science & Technology) and technical competitive examinations.