India has joined an elite list of nations with its own indigenous, advanced quantum communication technology as the Indian Army initiated the procurement process to secure the new tech that will enable high-end secured communication with troops

The Indian Army is set to possess advanced quantum communication technology, thereby joining an elite list of nations with indigenous quantum tech. The new technology will equip troops with a high-end secured defence system.

The technology, developed by QNu Labs, a Bangalore-based deep tech start-up, will help in modern-day war fare as the communication channel created using the Quantum Key Distribution (QDK) system is non-hackable, according to the defence ministry.

"A QKD system allows the creation of a quantum-secure secret pair of symmetric keys between two end points, separated by a certain distance [in this case, over 150 km] in a terrestrial optical fibre infrastructure. The QKD helps create a non-hackable quantum channel for creating un-hackable encryption keys, which are used to encrypt critical data/voice/video, across the end points," the ministry said in a statement.

After the successful trials, the Indian Army has initiated the procurement process of QNu Labs' developed QKD systems by issuing a commercial Request For Proposal (RFP), the ministry added.

Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar, buoyed by the developments, termed the innovation of indigenously QKD technology as a "milestone achievement" in ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal’ and a befitting success story of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

Like other advanced militaries, the Indian Army is actively exploring this technology as an enabler to fuse a large density of data and decision support capability to securely deliver communication to troop leaders at various levels.