Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh Announced Establishment of 4 Thematic Hubs & Technical Groups for NQM

On 30th September 2024, Union Minister of State (MoS) (Independent Charge, IC) Dr. Jitendra Singh, Ministry for Science & Technology (MoS&T) announced the establishment of Thematic Hubs (T-Hubs) and Technical Groups for National Quantum Mission (NQM) via video conferencing at a ceremony held in New Delhi, Delhi.

• It includes the establishment of 4 T-Hubs comprising 14 Technical Groups (17 Project Teams) across 17 states and 2 Union Territories (UTs) in India.
• These hubs will play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between research and industry and will ensure that innovations developed in these hubs lead to tangible advancements in the marketplace.

About T-Hubs:

i.These hubs are based on a multi-disciplinary approach, which aims to bring together experts from various fields like: physics, computer science, engineering, and material science, thereby fostering collaborations with academia, industry, and government to drive holistic advancements in quantum technology.

ii.These hubs will bring together a total of 152 researchers from 43 institutions which further include 31 institutes of national importance, 8 research laboratories, 1 university and 3 private institutes across India.

iii.These hubs are expected to benefit sectors like: telecommunications, defence, sensing & metrology, and healthcare.

iv.Each T-Hub will function under the Hub-Spoke-Spike model, supporting a cluster based network of research projects (Spokes) and individual research groups (Spikes). These central hubs will enhance coordination among research institutions, enabling them to pool resources and expertise.

Institutes Involved in T-Hubs:

i.Thematic Hub for Quantum Computing: It will be based at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru in Karnataka.

• Institutions involved: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi; IIT Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh, UP); IIT Roorkee (Uttarakhand); IIT Bombay (Maharashtra); IIT Madras (Tamil Nadu, TN); IIT Ropar (Punjab); IIT Guwahati (Assam); IIT Patna (Bihar); Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Hyderabad (Telangana); The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) Chennai (TN); Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT) Noida (Uttar Pradesh, UP); Society for Electronic Transactions and Security (SETS) Chennai (TN); Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Bengaluru (Karnataka); IIT Indore (Madhya Pradesh, MP); Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER-TVM) (Kerala); IISER Pune (Maharashtra); Raman Research Institute (RRI) Bengaluru(Karnataka); National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) Bhubaneswar (Odisha); Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai (Maharashtra); TIFR Hyderabad (Telangana); and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) Bengaluru (Karnataka).

ii.Thematic Hub for Quantum Communication: It will be based at IIT Madras in TN.

• Institutions involved: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Ahmedabad (Gujarat); IIT Kanpur; IIT Delhi; ISRO Satellite Centre(now known as UR Rao Satellite Centre) in Bengaluru; IIT Roorkee; IIT Jammu (Jammu & Kashmir, J&K); IIT Bhilai (Chhattisgarh); IIT Kharagpur (West Bengal, WB); IIT Patna; IIT Hyderabad; IIT Indore; IIT Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh, AP); IIT Indore;  SETS Chennai; C-DAC Bengaluru; IIT Indore; IISER-TVM; IISER Mohali (Punjab); Raman Research Institute (RRI) Bengaluru; IISER Bhopal (MP); Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) Prayagraj (UP); Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) Thiruvananthapuram; C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram; IISc Bengaluru.

iii.Thematic Hub for Quantum Sensing and Metrology: It will be based at IIT Bombay in Maharashtra.

• Institutions involved: IISc Bengaluru; IIT Madras; IIT Kanpur; IIT Delhi; IIT Gandhinagar (Gujarat); IIT Ropar; IISER Bhopal (MP); HRI Prayagraj (UP); Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) Kolkata (WB); BITS Goa; University of Hyderabad (Telangana);  and SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS) (Kolkata, WB); The Chatterjee Group Centres for Research and Education in Science and Technology (TCG CREST) Chennai(TN); TIFR Bombay; TIFR Hyderabad.

iv.Thematic Hub for Quantum Materials and Devices: It will be based at IIT Delhi in Delhi.

• Institution involved: IIT Bombay; IIT Madras; IIT Kanpur; IIT Roorkee; IIT Kharagpur; IIT Bhubaneswar(Odisha) ; Solid State Physics Laboratory-Defence Research and Development Organisation (SSPL-DRDO) Delhi; IACS Kolkata and IISER Pune.

National Quantum Mission:

i.In 2023, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi had approved NQM with budget outlay of Rs 6,003.65 crore for period of 8 years i.e. from Financial Year 2023-24 (FY24) to FY31.The NQM is led by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), MoST under a Mission Director, Dr. J. B. V. Reddy.

• The key target of NQM is to develop intermediate scale quantum computers with 50 to 1000 physical qubits in 8 years in various platforms such as superconducting and photonic technology.

ii.It is one of the 9 missions initiated under Prime Minister’s Science Technology Innovation Advisory Council (PMSTIAC), which aimed to promote scientific research and to position India as a global leader in quantum technology.

• The mission is expected to revolutionalize sectors like: telecommunications, defence, finance, and healthcare, among others.

MoS&T launched Bharat Gen, World’s 1st Government Funded Multi Modal Large Language Modal

On 30th September 2024, Union Minister of State (MoS) (Independent Charge, IC) Dr. Jitendra Singh, Ministry for Science & Technology (MoS&T) virtually launched ‘Bharat Gen’, an pioneering initiative in generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) designed to revolutionalize public service delivery and boost citizen engagement.

• This initiative marks the world’s 1st government-funded Multimodal Large Language Modal (LLM) project which aims to create efficient and inclusive AI in Indian languages.

About Bharat Gen:

i.It is led by IIT Bombay, Mumbai (Maharashtra) under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) of the DST.

ii.It will be implemented by the Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) Foundation for Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Internet-for-Everything (IoE) at IIT Bombay in partnership with other prestigious academic institutes  such as: International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore; and IIT Madras.

iii.The initiative has outlined key milestones to be achieved up to July 2026, such as: extensive AI model development, experimentation, and setting the AI benchmarks customized to cater the needs of India.

iv.It aligns with the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat by creating foundational AI models specifically tailored for India.

Key Features:

i.The nature of foundational models of Bharat Gen are multilingual and multimodal.

ii.Foundational models of Bharat Gen are open-source.It will address both text and speech, ensuring representation across India’s diverse linguistic landscape.

• By using multilingual datasets, it will capture the nuances of Indian languages, which are often underrepresented in global AI models.

iii.It has Bhartiya data set based building, and training features.

iv.It is an open-source platform and development of an ecosystem of generative AI research in the country.

About Ministry of Science & Technology (MoS&T):
Union Minister of State (MoS)- Dr. Jitendra Singh (Constituency- Udhampur, Jammu & Kashmir, J&K)