With the Budget announcement providing direction, the Government of India need to roll-out the national mission on quantum technology. Explain (200 Words)
Refer - The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
· In the Budget 2020 ,a welcome announcement for Indian science — over the next five years she proposed spending 8,000 crore on a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications.
· This promises to catapult India into the midst of the second quantum revolution, a major scientific effort that is being pursued by the United States, Europe, China and others
· So far India have been plagued by a lack of sufficient resources, high quality manpower, timeliness and flexibility. The new announcement in the Budget would greatly help fix the resource problem but high quality manpower is in global demand.
· A previous programme called Quantum Enabled Science and Technology has just been fully rolled out, more than two years after the call for proposals.
· For example, unrestricted funds that can be used to attract and retain high quality manpower and to build international networks will make an enormous difference to the success of this enterprise.
· This is the most effective way (as China and Singapore discovered) to catch up scientifically with the international community, while quickly creating a vibrant intellectual environment to help attract top researchers.
· Further, connections with Indian industry from the start would also help quantum technologies become commercialised successfully, allowing Indian industry to benefit from the quantum revolution.
· India must encourage industrial houses and strategic philanthropists to take an interest and reach out to Indian institutions with an existing presence in this emerging field.
