India is expected to take a leadership role in quantum technology among Global South nations, and the Centre is likely to prepare a blueprint for the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) 2.0, a top official said.

"The first phase of NM-ICPS is ending December 2027, and we are thinking of the second phase, which combines with physical artificial intelligence (AI)," Umesh V. Waghmare told ET, adding that the fineprint would depend on the specific technologies and products to be demonstrated in the coming year.

"As of now it is too early to make that call, but we are formulating that proposal now which will be submitted. The fund allocation will be comparable with the earlier phase," Umesh V. Waghmare, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST) told ET.

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In December 2018, the Cabinet approved the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) for an initial five-year term with an outlay of ₹3,660 crore, and is being implemented by Union Minister Jitendra Singh-headed Department of Science & Technology.

"The National Quantum Mission (NQM) is the youngest. We are into third year now and it has done a brilliant job in certain directions. In Quantum Communication we have made good leaps. DST supports exploratory research," Waghmare said.

In April 2023, the Cabinet approved NQM for 2023–24 to 2030–31period with a budget allocation of ₹6,003.65 crore.

The NQM is one of the nine initiatives under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Science Technology Innovation Advisory Council (PMSTIAC), aimed at positioning India as a global leader in quantum technology.

Under the national program, dedicated efforts are underway to develop quantum-resilient encryption techniques and post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) frameworks, ensuring safety and sovereignty of country's critical database systems in the quantum era.

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"One of our mandates, and emphasis is the translation of research into real world products and applications and that was historically a weak part in the Indian community, but the department was actually very visionary."

Over the last few years, the research and development (R&D) spend of country's gross domestic product (GDP) witnessed a growth by 85% to ₹2.45 trillion in 2023–24, from ₹1.33 trillion in 2019–20.

India aims to take R&D investment to 2% of the GDP by 2035.

The Technology, Translation and Innovation (TTI) division under the department has been actively engaged across the entire value chain, and supports moderate funding. "If you want to now scale up and make real world applications and products which will be sold globally, then you need industries to come in and invest."

To further engage with the industry, the Research and Development Innovation Fund (RDIF), a Rs 1 lakh-crore corpus in the form of a long-term loan or equity is conceived, he said, adding that the government is aggressively focussing on deep tech.

Waghmare further said that Quantum Communication is one of the major outcomes, following the demonstration of a 1,000-kilometer network, and efforts are underway to also demonstrate a 2,000-kilometer Quantum Communication network.

The milestone was achieved using an indigenous Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) network developed by QNu Labs, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup.