bengaluru in what is pegged to be one of indias largest science projects the national mission on quantum technologies applications nmqta for which rs 8000 crore was announced in the 2020 union budget is nearly ready for implementationthe dpr is ready and being considered for expenditure and then itll be ready for the cabinet prof ashutosh sharma secretary dst told toithe mission will develop and bring quantum computers secure communications quantum encryption and cryptanalysis and associated technologies within reach in india it will also help prepare nextgeneration manpower boost translational research and encourage entrepreneurship and startup ecosystemsby promoting advanced research in quantum science and technology technology development and higher education in science technology and engineering disciplines the dst said india can be at par with advanced countries and can derive several direct and indirect benefitsthe rs 8000 crore will be spread over 5 years and the fifth year grant will push activities for another three years the mission will have an interesting structure itll have an apex body with equal participation from industry relevant ministries science defence space atomic energy and academia with coownership and covision below this there will be a hub a distributed command and coordination centre that will integrate administration and scientific work sharma saidbelow the hub there are spokes these are more like centres with each centre focusing on a specific area or challenge below spokes there are spikes which are individual scientistdriven projectsin order to assemble the big picture spikes must work and feed into spokes and they will feed the hub so the hub is like a miniministry that will integrate the entire knowledge chain from generating new knowledge to consuming the knowledge and putting up and demonstrating applications and finally developing technologies that can be pushed in the market research parks incubators and similar initiatives will all be part of the hub sharma said adding that the hub will be a section 8 company vk saraswat member niti aayog told toi there was a robust process of preparing the dpr with multiple scientists active in this field about 1520 part of the committee i chaired they all contributed immensely and hemas contribution was special quantum technology is based on the principles of quantum theory which explains the nature of energy and matter on the atomic and subatomic level it concerns the control and manipulation of quantum systems with the goal of achieving information processing beyond the limits of the classical world quantum technologies are rapidly developing globally with a huge disruptive potential the next generation transformative technologies that will receive a push under this mission include quantum computers and computing quantum communication quantum key distribution encryption cryptanalysis quantum devices quantum sensing quantum materials quantum clock and so on the dst saidthe areas of focus for the mission will be fundamental science translation technology development human and infrastructural resource generation innovation and startups to address issues concerning national prioritiestheir applications which will receive boost include those