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The National Quantum Mission and its hubs, quantum computers, quantum communication and cryptography, and quantum sensing. Prelims has asked about qubits and about the targets and hubs of the National Quantum Mission.
Foundation note: Quantum concepts: qubit, superposition, entanglement, decoherence
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: the Majorana 1 chip and quantum computing
Showing 1 of 4 articles, those that changed from 1 to 30 June 2026.Show all
The Majorana dispute
Copy link to The Majorana disputePrelims
A Majorana is a long theorised particle that Microsoft's approach seeks as a stable gap in a highly conductive wire, which would make longer lasting qubits.
- Qubits are powerful but fragile and often lose their state within fractions of a second.
- Rivals such as IBM and Quantinuum use better understood approaches that do not depend on it.
- Two earlier Microsoft backed Nature papers were retracted.
What changed
25 Jun 2026BriefA peer reviewed critique in Nature (24 June) questions Microsoft's February 2025 Nature paper that underpins its plan for a working quantum system by 2029, saying its software gave inconsistent results and the wider data show only noise. Microsoft's claim to have found the Majorana has not been published in a peer reviewed journal. The Hindu, 25 Jun 2026: Microsoft's quantum computing technology called into question again (opens in a new tab)