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Although quantum computing is a fast growing field, skill and expertise in this new area of technology is desperately needed, and leading Indian institutions along with IBM India have been working on a programme to skill India.

Quantum computing has found application across medicine, agriculture, and finance. The government of India launched the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications (NMQTA) stressing the importance of pushing forward the quantum domain in India. IBM India recently collaborated with leading institutions of India to accelerate training and research in quantum computing. Gadgets 360 talked to L Venkata Subramaniam, Senior Manager, AI at IBM Research India, Professor Anil Shaji from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram, and Professor Anil Prabhakar of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras to understand what quantum computing is all about.

Is quantum computing a once in an era sort of change?

The power of quantum computing comes from two basic phenomena of quantum mechanics – superposition and quantum entanglement. While the bits in a classical computer exist as a string of zeros and ones, a quantum bit or a qubit can stay in a state of a combination of zero and one – this is called superposition. Entanglement, the other phenomena that powers quantum computing, is a connection between qubits. “The qubits needn’t be close to each other. One qubit can be in Delhi and the other can be in the other end of the universe. But if they are entangled, then by looking at the state of one of the qubit, you’ll be able to predict the state of the other qubit,” explained Subramaniam. By exploiting these two phenomena, quantum computing can be put into use in a wide range of activities ranging from speeding up the discovery of drugs and fertilizers to solving complex optimisation problems.

The government in its budget last year had announced NMQTA under the Ministry of Science and Technology with a total budget outlay of Rs. 8000 crore for the advancement of quantum technology. IBM’s collaboration with the leading educational institutions in India is aligned with this step by the government. Through IBM’s Quantum Educator Programme, the company will join hands with the faculty and students of Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) – Pune, IISER – Thiruvananthapuram, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Jodhpur, IIT – Kanpur, IIT – Kharagpur, IIT – Madras, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai, and the University of Calcutta to further research and education in quantum computing.

IBM introduced quantum computers over the cloud almost 5 years ago. The collaborating institutions will get priority access to IBM’s quantum systems, learning resources, and quantum tools over the cloud. Thus the students will get an opportunity to work on actual quantum computers and programme them using Qiskit, a python-based open-source framework developed by IBM.

Skilling India to lead the way?

A 2019 study published by Progressive Policy Institute pointed out that India will overtake the US as the world’s largest developer population centre by 2024. With a bit of training starting at the university level, the STEM students from India could adapt themselves to work and lead in the quantum computing arena with greater efficiency.

Talking about the current state of quantum technology courses in Indian institutions, Subramaniam said, “A lot of the courses are very theoretical in nature, there are no hands-on lab sessions. We are enabling the students and the faculty to get all the materials including the lab materials, the study material, and the start up code which will get them started”.

According to Professor Shaji of IISER Thiruvananthapuram, there is a bit of an issue in managing the expectations of students regarding quantum computing. “A lot of students are really interested in studying quantum computing now because of all the emphasis and also a bit of a hype surrounding quantum computing and quantum technologies,” Professor Shaji said. IISER

Thiruvananthapuram is also a part of the NMQTA. One of the researches that IISER is undertaking involves building a quantum computer using a different technology than that of IBM.

Professor Shaji said that the collaboration initiated by IBM will have a significant cascading effect in the term of five to ten years as the students are getting an early exposure to this up and coming technology. Talking about the student’s response he added, “There is quite a bit of news hype around this subject, so one goes in there expecting miracles to come out of it. It is important that the students understand that the technology is still in its baby steps. It is necessary to understand there are things that you can do and there are things that you would like to do but cannot do yet.”

IIT Madras has a Centre for Quantum Information, Communication, and Computing, where quantum computing is one among the three verticals in quantum research for the institution. Apart from the Quantum Educator’s Programme, IIT Madras has also joined hands with IBM for a course on quantum computing at the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), an online learning platform funded by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India which provides free courses on university-level STEM subjects. The quantum computing course on NPTEL which is set to start by late August has already received over 6,000 registrations, a clear indication of student-interest towards the subject.

Professor Prabhakar of IIT Madras said that the institution has priority access to a number of IBM’s quantum machines. “Our students are able to take a quantum computing lab where they are running problems on these machines. Many of the machines are also available to the public, but not with priority. We can also reserve some machines for use for our students. This enables the students to be more focused on what they are doing. Our goal is to be able to train at least 15 students each year at a higher level.”


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Gemini North Telescope Spots Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Racing Through Solar System

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Gemini North Telescope Spots Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Racing Through Solar System

A rare interstellar object has been spotted in our solar system, making it the second known object to cross over from outside our cosmic neighbourhood and arrive near our planet. 3I/ATLAS is seen here while about 290 million miles (465 million kilometres) from Earth, when it was journeying inbound on its trip to our vicinity of the solar system. This icy wanderer, first detected by the ATLAS survey on July 1, marks just the third known object from beyond our solar system to be identified, following in the cosmic footsteps of 1I/’Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov.

Massive Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Offers Rare Glimpse Into Alien Planetary System Origins

As per a statement from the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, which oversees the International Gemini Observatory, 3I/ATLAS offers a valuable chance to study the building blocks of alien planetary systems. “The sensitivity and scheduling agility of the International Gemini Observatory has provided critical early characterisation of this interstellar wanderer,” mentioned NSF program director Martin Still. At an estimated 12 miles (20 km) in diameter, 3I/ATLAS is much larger than its predecessors, making it easier to analyse.

Images show the comet with a bright, compact coma — the envelope of dust and gas surrounding its core — and other data suggest it could be older than our own solar system. Believed to have originated from the Milky Way’s outer thick disk, 3I/ATLAS may hold clues to the conditions in far-off star systems that once harboured it. Though the discovery is thrilling to some, the comet poses no threat to the Earth as it makes its fleeting visit.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is expected to make its closest pass by the Sun on Oct. 30, when it will fly 130 million miles inside the orbit of Mars. It comes closest to Earth in December, when it is 170 million miles away. Because of its odd orbit, it’s never coming back.

Astronomers around the world are turning toward a piece of an interstellar comet that broke off using a telescope too distant to study, by necessity, as a rare chance to probe the nature of an object from another star and its solar system of origin.

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NASA Grounds Boeing Starliner Until 2026 After Test Flight Failures

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NASA Grounds Boeing Starliner Until 2026 After Test Flight Failures

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner, a crew capsule for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, has been plagued by persistent problems. Its first crewed test flight in June 2024 was cut short by technical failures, including helium pressurization leaks and multiple thruster malfunctions. NASA ultimately elected to return Starliner to Earth without its crew, keeping the astronauts aboard the station for safety. With those problems unresolved, NASA now says the capsule will remain grounded until around 2026, and its next mission will likely be uncrewed.

Technical Setbacks and Grounding

According to NASA, During its June 2024 Crew Flight Test, Starliner suffered serious propulsion issues. Multiple helium leaks were detected in the service module’s pressurization system, and five of the capsule’s 28 fine-control thrusters failed during approach to the ISS. NASA and Boeing extended the crew’s station stay while engineers traced the problems to thermal and seal failures in the thruster “doghouse” enclosures.

Ultimately NASA decided to bring Starliner back to Earth empty, concluding the test without its astronauts aboard. Boeing and NASA have since conducted extensive ground testing to validate fixes: engineers at NASA’s White Sands facility are firing thrusters in varied sequences to refine thermal models, and Boeing has added new insulation shunts and thermal barriers in the thruster housings to prevent overheating.

Future of the Starliner Program

Boeing’s delays have reshaped NASA’s Commercial Crew plans. NASA officials say Starliner may even fly one more uncrewed test before carrying astronauts. Starliner development is now billions over budget: its original $4.2 billion contract has grown by roughly $2 billion in extra costs. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has flown 11 ISS crew missions and its NASA contract has climbed toward $5 billion amid extra flights added while Starliner lagged. NASA still views Starliner as a critical backup to Dragon and aims to certify it for crew rotations by late 2025 or early 2026.

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Quantum Leap: Scientists Achieve Magic State Distillation on Logical Qubits for the First Time

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Quantum Leap: Scientists Achieve Magic State Distillation on Logical Qubits for the First Time

Scientists have shown the elusive phenomenon of quantum computing that could create the way for fault-tolerant machines, which are much powerful than any of the supercomputers. Magic state distillation is the process which was proposed 20 years ago; however, the use of logical qubits has puzzled scientists since then. It has long been considered crucial for making high-quality resources, called magic states, required to complete the quantum computer’s potential. It has been possible on plains, till now, by which the high-quality magic states are purified so that the complex algorithms can use them. It has not been possible on the logical qubits.

According to Science Daily, the groups of physical qubits sharing the same data are configured for detecting and correcting the errors which frequently disturb the quantum computing operations. However, the scientists with QuEra said that they have demonstrated magic state distillation for the first time on logical qubits. The findings were published on July 14, 2025, in the journal Nature.

Path to Fault-tolerant Quantum Computing

Quantum computers would not be fulfilling their promise without this process. They use qubits as their building blocks and make use of quantum logic, the set of rules and operations that control how quantum information is processed for running the algorithms and processing data. It is challenging to run the complex algorithms together with maintaining amazingly low error rates.

Physical qubits are noisy, which implies that the calculations are often disrupted by factors such as temperature fluctuations and electromagnetic radiation. This is the reason why so much research has taken place on Quantum Error Correction.

With the distillation process, the faithfulness of the magic state increased for any input. This shows that the fault-tolerant magic state distillation has worked in practice. Further, it implies that the quantum computer uses both logical qubits and magic states of higher quality for running non-Clifford gates.

Scientists say that the shift has been observed for a few years. It was challenging to make the quantum computers, with the detection and correction of errors. However, the scientists have successfully done it.

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