India Launches Four Quantum Fabrication Hubs Under Its National Quantum Mission

With Rs 720 crore in funding, new facilities at three IITs and IISc aim to give India a sovereign hardware stack for sensing, computing, and quantum materials.

India has announced a major hardware push under its National Quantum Mission (NQM): four state-of-the-art quantum fabrication and central facilities distributed across leading institutes, backed by Rs 720 crore in funding.

Where the hubs are and what they do

According to India’s science and tech minister Jitendra Singh, the new infrastructure will be hosted at:

• IIT Delhi

• IIT Bombay

• IIT Kanpur

• IISc Bengaluru

Together they form a national “hardware spine” for:

• quantum sensing and metrology,

• quantum computing (including superconducting, photonic, and spin-based qubits),

• and quantum materials and device development.

Open access beyond government labs

A key design choice is openness. The hubs are not reserved only for NQM-funded projects. The facilities are planned to be open to: 

• academic researchers,

• startups and industry players,

• and strategic sectors needing secure, sovereign quantum hardware.

This approach turns the hubs into shared national assets, lowering the barrier for Indian teams that would otherwise have to rely heavily on foreign fabs and tools. 

Building a sovereign quantum hardware ecosystem

The article highlights several strategic goals behind the hubs: 

• Create indigenous quantum devices and systems, from sensors to processors,

• Support translational research, taking lab ideas into deployable products,

• Train a new generation of quantum hardware specialists,

• And reduce reliance on imported infrastructure, in line with India’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India) agenda.

IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur will anchor quantum sensing and metrology; IISc and IIT Bombay will focus on quantum computing fabrication, and IIT Delhi will lead on quantum materials and device development, according to the minister’s remarks. 

Taken together, these hubs position India among the global front-runners in large-scale quantum hardware development, not just software or algorithms.