India’s Quantum Communication Journey: Insights from the International Quantum Communication Conclave 2025

This brief outlines the strategic initiatives, innovations, and milestones showcased at the International Quantum Communication Conclave 2025 that are steering India’s progress toward future-ready quantum networks.

India is fast emerging as a significant player in the global race toward secure, quantum-based communications. The International Quantum Communication Conclave (IQCC) 2025 spotlighted India’s growing capabilities in this field, with quantum communications (QC) poised to become the backbone of future secure networks. Unlike traditional encryption, quantum communication leverages the laws of quantum mechanics, offering resilience against classical and quantum cyber threats. As global investments in quantum technologies exceed $44.5 billion, India is strategically positioning itself to lead with indigenous innovations and national-scale deployments.

The Indian government has made quantum communications a core pillar of its National Quantum Mission (NQM), aiming to create a robust ecosystem of research, commercialization, and deployment. Several institutions such as Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, the Centre for Development of Telematics (CDOT), and the Raman Research Institute (RRI) are spearheading foundational projects. For example, IIT Madras has pioneered the Metro Area Quantum Access Network (MAQAN) metro fiber testbed in Chennai, while C-DOT’s live Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) setup at Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi marks an important milestone. Separately, IIT Delhi and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have jointly demonstrated entanglement-based QKD over 50 km of fiber link in lab conditions and 8 km of optical fiber in field trials, in addition to executing a 100 km inter-city QKD trial between Prayagraj and Vindhyachal in Uttar Pradesh. Building on these, the ambitious Quantum Internet with Local Access (QUILA) program aims to link major Indian cities through a 2,000 km quantum backbone, integrating terrestrial and satellite QKD with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and quantum memory, laying the foundation for a national quantum internet.

The report explores a number of other important issues driving the future of India's progress in quantum computing and communications, and ultimately having a major impact on the security of India's communications networks.