quantum computers are a lot more common now than most people think and they are providing unique opportunities for ambitious young techies aditya singh part of the founding team and head of growth infrastructure at bosonq psi a quantum computing simulation startup says more than 20 companies today provide quantum computers but unlike traditional computers quantum computers cant be worked on directly instead you have to access them via the cloud this access to hardware is what has allowed companies like boson to emergesingh says through hackathons and other initiatives that boson conducts students can get firsthand experience with quantum applications and their potential to provide disruptive solutions for problems ranging from climate change to helping spur habitation on other worlds at the moment only a handful of people in the country have expertise in quantum computing so we spend a lot of time upskilling the engineers we hire he sayslv subramaniam distinguished quantum ambassador at ibm research india says for the vast majority of indian students who come with strong software training it is easy to pick up quantum software development languages that are mostly open source like ibms qiskitqiskit leverages quantum processors in research education and business to date the qiskit software development kit has been downloaded more than a million times qiskit is based on the python computing language which means knowing python is a big plus qiskit enables one to work on quantum computers at the level of circuits pulses and algorithms says subramaniamindia qiskitbosons singh says qiskit has been a game changer and techies should use it to hone their skillsindia has been one of the most successful stories behind it a tremendous number of developers in this field are coming out of india microsoft and aws also have similar offerings that can be leveraged adds singhsubramaniam says quantum computing could make previously intractable simulation search machine learning and optimisation calculations relatively easy and quick learners can pick reallife problems from these areas and build quantum circuits to solve these problems it further helps if these reallife problems also include real data a simple approach is to take a reallife problem that is being solved classically replace the classical techniques with quantum techniques and then compare benchmark and go beyond he saysfor those interested in hardware subramaniam says the path is harder because picking up these concepts from online selflearning is tough and university courses are limitedmahesh zurale senior md lead for advanced technology centres in india at accenture says the quantum space demands a strong aptitude for mathematics and problem solving he says an understanding of machine learning data science fundamentals and proficiency in coding languages like c and python are also important quantum programming requires proficiency in quantum logical circuits and in logical and physical architectures toodomain knowledgethe ability he says to map a classical ai ml application elegantly to quantum architecture or circuits is also a valued skillset in the industry knowledge of industry and domain specific nuances