Meet the four musketeers of India’s quantum computing dream

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru: If you ever visit the website of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), be prepared to be tested. A series of historical facts flash by.

“Did you know? We helped discover the farthest radio galaxy". “We discovered smell and taste are genetically coded"; “We discovered nanodomains on cell membranes"; “We discovered atmospheric neutrinos". “We built India’s first digital computer".

The birthplace of the country’s first classical computer (called Automatic Calculator by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1960) has serendipitously made another leap—towards the future of computing. Last month, it tested a six qubit quantum computer, a major milestone for India, considering that the country is trying to play catch up when it comes to quantum computing. India, according to experts, is 10-15 years behind in the race.

Consider this: Atom Computing, founded in Berkeley, California, in 2018, has built a 1,180 qubits neutral atom quantum computer last year. A qubit, or quantum bit, is the basic unit of information used to encode data in quantum computing. Quantum computers use various types of qubits—superconducting qubits, trapped ion qubits, quantum dots, photons, and neutral atoms.

These qubits can store more data, far more than traditional bits can, while performing advanced computations. Going ahead, quantum computers are seen solving many challenges the world grapples with today. “Powered by qubits, quantum computers may soon prove pivotal in addressing many of humanity’s greatest challenges, including cancer and other medical research, climate change, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI)," IBM, which introduced Condor, a 1,121 superconducting qubit quantum