Russia wants to work together with India on quantum computing

He said the matter would be taken up officially by the Russian government. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Forum.

“We have not signed any official contract and partnership till now. However, next year we will discuss it in the BRICS forum. “We have discussed possible ideas for mutual cooperation between scientists and there is great mutual interest between our countries,” Yunusov said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a plenary session at the Future Technologies Forum on July 13, which was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin said, “With Russia taking over the BRICS chairmanship next year, we look forward to discussing with our partners such specific projects in a number of important areas, including state-of-the-art computing technology as well as data processing, storage, and data processing.” And transmission technology is also involved.” Proposed a “National Technology Project” for 2030, which includes establishing a roadmap for Russian quantum technology development.

However, amid rising geopolitical tensions, the prospects of such partnerships are currently in doubt. A senior official of India’s central government said several delegations from Russia have come to India in the past six months, visiting various institutions and government-affiliated departments, but no concrete agreements have been signed.

A senior member of a top Indian research body agreed, saying there had been several discussions before last year on a possible collaboration, but no official announcement has been made so far.

A third official at a top academic institution also confirmed Russia’s position, but said no agreement had been reached.

All the officials requested anonymity as negotiations for cooperative contracts between India and Russia have not reached any conclusion yet.

RQC principal investigator Aleksey Akimov said there are several collaborative areas Russia is keen to focus on with India in building quantum computing capabilities.

“We have built a 32-qubit quantum computer, and we are currently experimenting with ways to implement them in public service sectors. Akimov said, “With India we are in discussion for technical expertise on creating common standards in different areas of quantum computing.” But cooperation is possible.

“We can build our own solutions and standards on top of a common stable technology platform, which will still take years to develop,” he said.

For example, “we have yet to build the capabilities to provide quantum computing service through the cloud to various organizations to commercialize the services. These are among the areas on which we can collaborate with other countries, but It will take time to build them.” ” They said.

“It is important to note that these discussions within the scientific community and research institutions are not uncommon – India currently has several such proposals with countries around the world, including the European Union. “Whether any of this translates into an official collaborative project will depend on a number of factors, including geopolitical concerns, international relations and more,” said the second Indian official.

On February 9, Mint had reported that Finland’s IQM quantum computer and India’s Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) are set to expand bilateral cooperation on specific areas of technologies including various applications of quantum computing.

However, talks with Russia are currently on hold.

“It is important to note that we (India) have enormous potential in various areas, including the first version of our own functional quantum computer. As a result, we have attracted the interest of a number of countries to take an interest in our technology – something that will increase further with the National Quantum Mission announced earlier this year,” he added.

However, Russia claimed that it was seeking a comprehensive cooperative agreement with India, not just an official one.

“We will seek cooperation, both governmental and institutional. We are currently in talks with universities in India to understand how we can collaborate. We will talk about how to cooperate and jointly develop technologies later. RQC’s Yunusov said, “As we know, many groups in India already have strong capabilities in various quantum computing areas, and we will look at ways to explore how we can identify mutual strengths.” and how to develop areas of partnership.

The author was in Moscow to attend the Future Technologies Forum 2023 at the invitation of The Roscongress Foundation.

UPDATE: July 18, 2023, 03:42 PM IST