Ajai Chowdhry warns India may miss 2028 quantum-safe target
India's big plan: make its critical systems quantum-safe by 2028 so hackers using super-powerful quantum computers can't break in.
But Ajai Chowdhry, HCLTech co-founder and head of the mission's board, isn't sure the country will get there in time.
He says there just isn't enough urgency, even though the risks are growing fast.
Ajai Chowdhry cites 'harvest now' threat
Chowdhry points out that people used to think quantum computers were a decade away from being a real threat, but that's changed: hackers could soon crack today's encryption or even save data now to unlock later ("harvest now, decrypt later").
India has made progress with homegrown projects like QNu Labs' 1,000-km secure network and QpiAI's 64-qubit computer expected this year.
Still, Chowdhry warns that unless we move faster and rely less on foreign tech, India might miss its own deadline for staying safe.