Ministers MC Sudhakar, Krishna Byre Gowda, NS Boseraju, CM Siddaramaiah, MB Patil and Priyank Kharge at the launch of Karnataka’s Quantum Roadmap, during Quantum India Bengaluru Summit on Thursday.
Credit: CMO
Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday announced a Rs 1,000 crore fund allocation for Karnataka’s Quantum Mission. It will be focused on R&D, skilling, infrastructure, and startups.
The announcement was made as a part of Karnataka’s Quantum Road Map to achieve the state’s Quantum Mission, which was launched at the inaugural edition of the Quantum India Bengaluru Summit on Thursday.
The roadmap lays out Karnataka’s plan to become a global quantum capital by 2035 and build a $20 billion quantum economy. A dedicated Quantum Task Force will helm the missions, and Q-city, an integrated quantum hub, will be at the centre of the innovation. Q-city will be located near Bengaluru.
“The Q-city will integrate academic institutions, innovation centres, manufacturing clusters for quantum hardware, processors, ancillary units, and R&D clusters supported by quantum HPC data centres," said N S Boseraju, Minister of Minor Irrigation, Science and Technology.
The CM stated the five pillars of the map —talent development, research and development excellence, infrastructure creation, industry support, and global partnerships.
To promote talent development, the government will introduce quantum skilling programmes in over 20 colleges and support 150 PhD fellowships every year, announced the CM.
“Karnataka will develop. India’s first Quantum Hardware Park, four Innovation Zones, and a dedicated FabLine to boost domestic manufacturing of quantum components. We aim to develop cutting-edge quantum systems, including 1000 qubit processors and pilot real-world applications in healthcare, defence, and cybersecurity,” he added.
The government will also launch a Quantum Venture Capital Fund to help startups scale. “By 2035, we aim to create 10,000 high-skilled jobs and establish Karnataka as the Quantum Capital of Asia. This will greatly benefit the common citizens — enabling early disease detection, secure communication and. Smarter agriculture,” stated the political head.
In alignment with the National Quantum mission, the state’s quantum mission will be executed in four phases — laying the foundation and infrastructure and capacity building; operationalising, R&D and Pilots; Manufacturing and Commercialisation; Quantum powerhouse and export destination.
The Science and Technology minister also announced that the state expects to establish quantum chip fabrication capabilities by the end of this year. "To lead Karnataka towards becoming a global quantum powerhouse, a quantum curriculum will be introduced at higher secondary levels in English and Kannada through the Stream Labs initiative," he stated
He added that by creating over two lakh direct jobs in the quantum computing sector, Karnataka aims to capture 20% of the global quantum technology market share by 2035, with strategies already being formulated to achieve this.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar urged industries to also look beyond Bengaluru, towards tier 2 and tier 3 cities, for Quantum development. “Let’s create the Quantum future in Karnataka. We have power, infrastructure, land, and everything the industries need. We will share our innovation and technology with you. The government will stand strong by its mission,” he said.
Ministers MB Patil, Krishna Byre Gowda and MC Sudhakar were also present at the launch.