DRDO Signs First High-Value TDF Deep Tech Pact with Quantum Start-up

The correct answer is the Technology Development Fund. DRDO signed the agreement for an indigenous 20 mK dilution refrigerator with the start-up Zero mK India Private Limited under the TDF scheme, and it is the first high-value deep tech project agreement the scheme has supported. The funding flows from the Rs 500 crore corpus that Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh had cleared for deep tech and cutting-edge projects. Option B is wrong because the Innovations for Defence Excellence framework is a separate route that backs innovators through challenges and prototype grants, and it was not named in this signing. Option C is wrong because the Make-II procedure is a capital procurement category meant for industry-funded prototype development, not the vehicle used here. Option D is wrong because the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme pays for shared test facilities rather than for a cryogenic product development agreement with a start-up.

The correct answer is Rajasthan. The release places Zero mK India Private Limited at Alwar in Rajasthan, and the agreement itself was signed in New Delhi between the Director of the Technology Development Fund and the start-up. The other three states are plausible guesses because each hosts a strong electronics or space cluster, but none of them figures in this agreement. Gujarat in option A is not mentioned anywhere in the announcement. Telangana in option C is home to several defence and aerospace units, yet the start-up named here is not based there. Kerala in option D is likewise absent from the release. Candidates should tie the start-up to Alwar, Rajasthan, the product to a 20 mK dilution refrigerator for quantum applications, and the mentoring laboratory to the Solid State Physics Laboratory.

The correct answer is the National Quantum Mission. A dilution refrigerator of the 20 mK class produces the ultra-cold millikelvin environment in which quantum computing platforms and related quantum technologies are operated and tested, so building one in India directly serves the quantum mission and strengthens capability in quantum technology, advanced cryogenics and strategic technologies. It also trims dependence on imported cryogenic infrastructure. Option A is wrong because the supercomputing mission builds classical high performance computing systems, which do not need millikelvin cooling. Option C is wrong because the green hydrogen mission deals with electrolysers and hydrogen production rather than cryogenic quantum hardware. Option D is wrong because the ocean mission covers deep sea exploration and manned submersibles, an unrelated domain. The agreement therefore reads as a quantum ecosystem step, not a computing, energy or marine one.