India has set 2028 as the target year for securing critical infrastructure against quantum threats, but the country may find it difficult to achieve this goal because organisations are not addressing the risk with the necessary urgency, according to Dr Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder of HCLTech and chairman of Governing Board of the National Quantum Mission.
Until just two or three years back, most people believed that a quantum computer capable of breaking our financial and defence systems was at least a decade away. That is no longer the case, Chowdhry said in an interview with Moneycontrol.
The National Quantum Mission has established deadlines requiring key infrastructure sectors to adopt post-quantum cryptography (PQC) by 2028, with businesses expected to complete implementation by 2029, he said.
Asked whether India can realistically meet the 2028 deadline, Chowdhry said: "I'm not sure."
The issue has more to do with the speed of implementation than with the technology itself.
"In India, people generally fail to act with urgency and tend to wait for others to take the initiative. That is not right," he said.
The government is currently collaborating with regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to drive implementation. He said that a formal directive from the government would help speed up the process.
The quantum threat extends beyond the moment when a sufficiently powerful quantum computer is finally developed. Adversaries can already capture encrypted information and wait to decode it later, once quantum technology has advanced enough to break current encryption.
They can gather all of your information today, and when quantum computers become available, they will be capable of decoding it.
For India, this creates worries about financial systems, defense networks, and other vital infrastructure that handle data requiring long-term protection.
Chowdhry also warned against the straightforward adoption of overseas security products.
“We have recommended to not buy foreign products because how are you secure if you’re buying foreign products?” he said.
Chowdhry argues that the issue of quantum security is part of a broader challenge facing India: the nation has traditionally focused on providing technology and engineering services to international firms, while failing to create sufficient proprietary technologies of its own.
Technology sovereignty has become crucial today, as each nation seeks to assert control over its own technological capabilities and is increasingly acting independently, he added.
He recommends that India select roughly 10 to 15 technologies on which to focus its investments, aiming for three or four of them to ultimately emerge as global leaders.
He believes India should focus on areas such as quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, space exploration, telecommunications, nuclear technology, drones, and components of the electric vehicle ecosystem.
That same philosophy also influences Chowdhry’s perspective on India’s Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund.
Although he described the RDI Fund as “outstanding,” he contended that merely allocating money to startups and researchers is insufficient to build technology companies that can compete on a global scale.
The government must act as a primary customer for the companies it supports, he said.
“Across the globe, governments serve as the main anchor customer,” Chowdhry noted.
Government should not place just a single order, but a sequence of orders that helps these firms grow. Only when they achieve scale will they be able to operate independently, he added.
Chowdhry explained that the National Quantum Mission was structured differently from traditional research programmes, directing scientists to focus on developing tangible products instead of merely producing academic research papers.
He added that the mission aims to involve startups and large companies once technologies achieve greater maturity.
He pointed to progress at Bengaluru-based quantum computing company QpiAI, which has set up a quantum fabrication facility to manufacture quantum chips in India. The company is pursuing a chip-to-system-to-application approach.
Chowdhry said that another firm, QNu Labs, was assigned to demonstrate a secure quantum network spanning 1,000 km and has already met that goal. The mission now aims to facilitate its extension to 2,000 km.
At the start of the mission, India’s quantum computing capability was at roughly seven qubits, whereas QpiAI is projected to achieve a 64-qubit quantum computer this year.
For Chowdhry, the pressing task is to make sure India’s quantum aspirations are converted into concrete security measures before emerging technological risks overtake them.
The 2028 timeline provides a clear objective for key installations, but India’s ability to meet it will hinge on how swiftly government bodies and private organisations progress from merely acknowledging the danger to actively upgrading and replacing exposed cryptographic infrastructure.
