Excelsior Correspondent
MUMBAI, Nov 24: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh, today announced the establishment of four state-of-the-art Quantum Fabrication and Central Facilities worth Rs 720 crore across IIT Bombay, IISc Bengaluru, IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi under the National Quantum Mission (NQM). Making the announcement during his visit to IIT Bombay, the Minister said that these cutting-edge facilities mark a decisive leap in India’s journey toward technological sovereignty, positioning the nation among the select global leaders advancing next-generation quantum technologies.
The event was attended by senior leadership from the country’s premier scientific institutions, including Dr. Sireesh, Director of IIT Bombay; Dr. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology; Dr. N. Kalaiselvi, Director General, CSIR; Dr. Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology; senior faculty members of IIT Bombay; researchers; innovators; and representatives from the Technology Innovation Hubs and start-up ecosystem.
Dr. Singh said that under the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister, India has emerged as one of the earliest nations to launch a National Quantum Mission, reflecting the government’s willingness to embrace disruptive ideas and rapidly translate them into national initiatives. He added that the new fabrication and characterization capabilities, spanning quantum sensing, quantum computing, and quantum materials, will serve as the foundational hardware ecosystem needed to build sovereign, secure, scalable quantum devices and systems within the country. These facilities, he said, will be open not only to NQM investigators but also to academia, industry, start-ups, and strategic sectors across India.
Referring to IIT Bombay as one of India’s oldest and most respected science and technology institutions, the Minister noted that the institute has consistently partnered with the Department of Science & Technology (DST) since its inception, and continues to be a national leader in deep-tech domains. He highlighted that IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur will anchor the nation’s quantum sensing and metrology infrastructure; IISc Bengaluru and IIT Bombay will advance quantum computing fabrication using superconducting, photonic and spin qubits; and IIT Delhi will host India’s quantum materials and device development ecosystem. These capabilities, he noted, will create a controlled environment for prototyping indigenous quantum devices, supporting translational research, and training the next generation of quantum hardware experts.
Speaking about IIT Bombay’s Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), Dr. Singh noted that the hub has become a national model for translational research, supporting 96 technology development projects and more than 50 deep-tech start-ups. Among its 23 portfolio companies, several are already revenue-generating, with a combined valuation of Rs 466 crore. He also emphasized the national importance of BharatGen, India’s first sovereign multilingual and multimodal AI initiative aimed at building large language models across 22+ Indian languages. He said that BharatGen’s text, speech, and vision models, and applications such as Krishi Sathi, e-VikrAI and Docbodh, represent India’s growing leadership in AI, data sovereignty and inclusive digital innovation.
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