Dataquest

India has demonstrated a 5.56-kilometre free-space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link, testing a combination of quantum-based key exchange and post-quantum cryptography for secure communications. The field trial was conducted on the night of September 2728, 2026, between the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) and the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IIT Gandhinagar), according to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technolog

The Hyderabad-based space-tech startup is scheduled to launch its 14 kg MOI-1A satellite aboard SpaceXs Transporter-18 rideshare mission on October 2. Instead of simply collecting data and sending it back, the satellite is designed to let customers run Artificial Intelligence (AI) models on Earth-observation imagery while it is still in orbit. That changes the role of the satellite. It becomes not just a sensor in space, but a computing node. With MOI-1A, the Hyderabad startup is moving AI infer

SatLeo Labs is set to launch TAPAS-1, its first thermal-imaging payload, aboard SpaceXs Falcon 9 Transporter-18 mission via Dhruva Spaces LEAP-2 platform on October 1, 2026. The mission is intended to validate the Bengaluru-based startups thermal-sensing technology, which captures temperature patterns across the Earths surface and can support applications such as crop-stress monitoring, urban heat mapping and forest-fire detection. On the sidelines of the launch, Dataquest spoke to Urmil Bakhai,