Union Minister of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh, on Monday announced the establishment of four quantum fabrication and central facilities worth ₹720 crore across IIT Bombay, IISc Bengaluru, IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi under the National Quantum Mission (NQM).
The announcement was made during the Minister’s visit to IIT Bombay. He said the initiative aims to build the country’s quantum hardware ecosystem and place India among global leaders in next-generation quantum technologies.
According to the Minister, the new facilities will support quantum sensing, quantum computing and quantum materials research. They are also expected to contribute to the development of sovereign and scalable quantum devices. Access will be open to NQM investigators as well as academic institutions, industry, start-ups and strategic organisations.
The Minister noted that IIT Bombay has been a long-term partner of the Department of Science and Technology and continues to be a major centre for deep-tech innovation. He said IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur will lead quantum sensing and metrology infrastructure, while IISc Bengaluru and IIT Bombay will support quantum computing fabrication using superconducting, photonic and spin qubits. IIT Delhi will focus on quantum materials and device development.
The facilities are expected to create controlled environments for prototyping indigenous quantum devices, support translational research and train quantum hardware experts.
The Minister also pointed to the rapid evolution of science and medical technology in recent decades and said quantum technologies will drive further breakthroughs across healthcare, diagnostics, materials science and high-performance computing. He added that deep-tech research increasingly requires interdisciplinary training and that future medical education may include physics as a core component.
He highlighted the need to break institutional silos and encourage collaboration among major institutes to convert research into real-world applications. He referred to his recent efforts in facilitating multi-institutional MoUs between IITs, AIIMS, IIMs, CSIR labs and technology institutes to strengthen market linkages, improve public outreach and support start-ups, students and farmers.
–IANS