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India’s quantum leap: The future of computing and research

Quantum computers, with their ability to process complex calculations at speeds unattainable by classical computers, are expected to unlock new realms of possibility in artificial intelligence, cryptography, and material sciences

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Image credit:airawat.cdac.in

On September 26, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated three indigenously developed PARAM (Parallel Machine) Rudra Supercomputers to the nation, marking a significant stride in India’s scientific capabilities. Priced at approximately Rs 130 crore, these supercomputers are now operational in India’s major cities-Pune, Delhi, and Kolkata, enhancing the nation’s research capabilities across diverse fields including physics, earth sciences, and cosmology.

While the new move is a testament to India’s growing technological prowess, it is the country’s ambition in quantum computing that promises to revolutionize the landscape of scientific research. The Prime Minister underscored this ambition during his address, emphasizing that the future of technology lies in harnessing quantum computing’s unparalleled potential.

The National Quantum Mission, launched to propel India to the forefront of this cutting-edge field, reflects a grand vision of transforming traditional computing paradigms. Quantum computers, with their ability to process complex calculations at speeds unattainable by classical computers, are expected to unlock new realms of possibility in artificial intelligence, cryptography, and material sciences. As the Prime Minister stated, “This emerging technology is expected to transform the world, bringing unprecedented changes to the IT sector, manufacturing, small enterprises, and startups.”

This focus on quantum technology aligns seamlessly with the establishment of the PARAM Rudra Supercomputers. These machines will serve not only as a backbone for advanced scientific research but also as critical infrastructure for developing quantum algorithms and applications. The interdependence of supercomputers and quantum computing signifies a dual pathway for India’s technological advancement, where both realms can enhance one another.

As India aspires to lead globally in these high-tech domains, the implications extend beyond academic circles. The integration of supercomputers with quantum computing capabilities is poised to catalyse innovative solutions that can address pressing societal challenges, from climate change predictions to optimizing agricultural practices. The recently inaugurated High-Performance Computing system, tailored for weather and climate research, exemplifies this potential. With its advanced predictive models, it is set to empower farmers and fishermen, ensuring they have access to critical data that can enhance their livelihoods.

India’s focus on youth and education—through initiatives like the establishment of Atal Tinkering Labs and increased scholarships for STEM education—demonstrates a concerted effort to nurture the next generation of scientists and engineers who will drive the nation’s ambitions in both supercomputing and quantum technology.

As India continues to make remarkable strides in various sectors, including space and semiconductor technologies, the integration of supercomputing and quantum capabilities is poised to redefine the country’s position on the global stage. The Prime Minister’s optimism about India’s future in these domains reflects a broader narrative of a nation ready to leverage its scientific advancements for both national development and global leadership.

While the PARAM Rudra Supercomputers represent a monumental step forward, it is the path toward quantum computing that holds the promise of transformative change. With the right investments and a robust scientific community, India is not just aiming to keep pace with global advancements but is setting the stage to lead in the realms of technology that will shape the future.

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Space & Physics

Nobel Prize in Physics: Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis Honoured for Pioneering Quantum Discoveries

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics honours John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for revealing how entire electrical circuits can display quantum behaviour — a discovery that paved the way for modern quantum computing.

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The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their landmark discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit, an innovation that laid the foundation for today’s quantum computing revolution.

Announcing the prize, Olle Eriksson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said, “It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology.”

The Committee described their discovery as a “turning point in understanding how quantum mechanics manifests at the macroscopic scale,” bridging the gap between classical electronics and quantum physics.

John Clarke: The SQUID Pioneer

British-born John Clarke, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, is celebrated for his pioneering work on Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) — ultra-sensitive detectors of magnetic flux. His career has been marked by contributions that span superconductivity, quantum amplifiers, and precision measurements.

Clarke’s experiments in the early 1980s provided the first clear evidence of quantum behaviour in electrical circuits — showing that entire electrical systems, not just atoms or photons, can obey the strange laws of quantum mechanics.

A Fellow of the Royal Society, Clarke has been honoured with numerous awards including the Comstock Prize (1999) and the Hughes Medal (2004).

Michel H. Devoret: Architect of Quantum Circuits

French physicist Michel H. Devoret, now the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics at Yale University, has been one of the intellectual architects of quantronics — the study of quantum phenomena in electrical circuits.

After earning his PhD at the University of Paris-Sud and completing a postdoctoral fellowship under Clarke at Berkeley, Devoret helped establish the field of circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED), which underpins the design of modern superconducting qubits.

His group’s innovations — from the single-electron pump to the fluxonium qubit — have set performance benchmarks in quantum coherence and control. Devoret is also a recipient of the Fritz London Memorial Prize (2014) and the John Stewart Bell Prize, and is a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

John M. Martinis: Building the Quantum Processor

American physicist John M. Martinis, who completed his PhD at UC Berkeley under Clarke’s supervision, translated these quantum principles into the hardware era. His experiments demonstrated energy level quantisation in Josephson junctions, one of the key results now honoured by the Nobel Committee.

Martinis later led Google’s Quantum AI lab, where his team in 2019 achieved the world’s first demonstration of quantum supremacy — showing a superconducting processor outperforming the fastest classical supercomputer on a specific task.

A former professor at UC Santa Barbara, Martinis continues to be a leading voice in quantum computing research and technology development.

A Legacy of Quantum Insight

Together, the trio’s discovery, once seen as a niche curiosity in superconducting circuits, has become the cornerstone of the global quantum revolution. Their experiments proved that macroscopic electrical systems can display quantised energy states and tunnel between them, much like subatomic particles.

Their work, as the Nobel citation puts it, “opened a new window into the quantum behaviour of engineered systems, enabling technologies that are redefining computation, communication, and sensing.”

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Space & Physics

The Tiny Grip That Could Reshape Medicine: India’s Dual-Trap Optical Tweezer

Indian scientists build new optical tweezer module—set to transform single-molecule research and medical Innovation

Joe Jacob

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Advanced optical tweezers manipulate single molecules with laser precision, enabling breakthroughs in biomedical and neuroscience research

In an inventive leap that could open up new frontiers in neuroscience, drug development, and medical research, scientists in India have designed their own version of a precision laboratory tool known as the dual-trap optical tweezers system. By creating a homegrown solution to manipulate and measure forces on single molecules, the team brings world-class technology within reach of Indian researchers—potentially igniting a wave of scientific discoveries.

Optical tweezers, a Nobel Prize-winning invention from 2018, use focused beams of light to grab and move microscopic objects with extraordinary accuracy. The technique has become indispensable for measuring tiny forces and exploring the mechanics of DNA, proteins, living cells, and engineered nanomaterials. Yet, decades after their invention, conventional optical tweezers systems sometimes fall short for today’s most challenging experiments.

Researchers at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous institute backed by India’s Department of Science and Technology in Bengaluru, have now introduced a smart upgrade that addresses long-standing pitfalls of dual-trap tweezers. Traditional setups rely on measuring the light that passes through particles trapped in two separate beams—a method prone to signal “cross-talk.” This makes simultaneous, independent measurement difficult, diminishing both accuracy and versatility.

Comparison of conventional and newly developed dual-trap optical tweezer designs, highlighting how the Indian innovation eliminates signal interference for more precise measurements

The new system pioneers a confocal detection scheme. In a media statement, Md Arsalan Ashraf, a doctoral scholar at RRI, explained, “The unique optical trapping scheme utilizes laser light scattered back by the sample for detecting trapped particle position. This technique pushes past some of the long-standing constraints of dual-trap configurations and removes signal interference. The single-module design integrates effortlessly with standard microscopy frameworks,” he said.

The refinement doesn’t end there. The system ensures that detectors tracking tiny particles remain perfectly aligned, even when the optical traps themselves move. The result: two stable, reliable measurement channels, zero interference, and no need for complicated re-adjustment mid-experiment—a frequent headache with older systems.

Traditional dual-trap designs have required costly and complex add-ons, sometimes even hijacking the features of laboratory microscopes and making additional techniques, such as phase contrast or fluorescence imaging, hard to use. “This new single-module trapping and detection design makes high-precision force measurement studies of single molecules, probing of soft materials including biological samples, and micromanipulation of biological samples like cells much more convenient and cost-effective,” said Pramod A Pullarkat, lead principal investigator at RRI, in a statement.

By removing cross-talk and offering robust stability—whether traps are close together, displaced, or the environment changes—the RRI team’s approach is not only easier to use but far more adaptable. Its plug-and-play module fits onto standard microscopes without overhauling their basic structure.

From the intellectual property point of view, this design may be a game-changer. By cracking the persistent problem of signal interference with minimalist engineering, the new setup enhances measurement precision and reliability—essential advantages for researchers performing delicate biophysical experiments on everything from molecular motors to living cells.

With the essential building blocks in place, the RRI team is now exploring commercial avenues to produce and distribute their single-module, dual-trap optical tweezer system as an affordable add-on for existing microscopes. The innovation stands to put advanced single-molecule force spectroscopy, long limited to wealthier labs abroad, into the hands of scientists across India—and perhaps spark breakthroughs across the biomedical sciences.

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Space & Physics

New Magnetic Transistor Breakthrough May Revolutionize Electronics

A team of MIT physicists has created a magnetic transistor that could make future electronics smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient. By swapping silicon for a new magnetic semiconductor, they’ve opened the door to game-changing advancements in computing.

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Illustration of an advanced microchip with visualized magnetic fields, representing MIT's breakthrough in magnetic semiconductor transistors for next-generation electronics.

For decades, silicon has been the undisputed workhorse in transistors—the microscopic switches responsible for processing information in every phone, computer, and high-tech device. But silicon’s physical limits have long frustrated scientists seeking ever-smaller, more efficient electronics.

Now, MIT researchers have unveiled a major advance: they’ve replaced silicon with a magnetic semiconductor, introducing magnetism into transistors in a way that promises tighter, smarter, and more energy-saving circuits. This new ingredient, chromium sulfur bromide, makes it possible to control electricity flow with far greater efficiency and could even allow each transistor to “remember” information, simplifying circuit design for future chips.

“This lack of contamination enables their device to outperform existing magnetic transistors. Most others can only create a weak magnetic effect, changing the flow of current by a few percent or less. Their new transistor can switch or amplify the electric current by a factor of 10,” the MIT team said in a media statement. Their work, detailed in Physical Review Letters, outlines how this material’s stability and clean switching between magnetic states unlocks a new degree of control.

Chung-Tao Chou, MIT graduate student and co-lead author, explains in a media statement, “People have known about magnets for thousands of years, but there are very limited ways to incorporate magnetism into electronics. We have shown a new way to efficiently utilize magnetism that opens up a lot of possibilities for future applications and research.”

The device’s game-changing aspect is its ability to combine the roles of memory cell and transistor, allowing electronics to read and store information faster and more reliably. “Now, not only are transistors turning on and off, they are also remembering information. And because we can switch the transistor with greater magnitude, the signal is much stronger so we can read out the information faster, and in a much more reliable way,” said Luqiao Liu, MIT associate professor, in a media statement.

Moving forward, the team is looking to scale up their clean manufacturing process, hoping to create arrays of these magnetic transistors for broader commercial and scientific use. If successful, the innovation could usher in a new era of spintronic devices, where magnetism becomes as central to electronics as silicon is today.

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