India’s National Cyber Security Coordinator Airs Concern Over China’s Advances in Quantum Technology
‘China’s advance in quantum technology, absence of its roadmap in India cause of concern’
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+ National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) Lt Gen (retd) Rajesh Pant said on Monday that China’s advances in quantum technology and an absence of roadmap on it in India were a “cause of concern”.
“But I [Lt Gen (retd) Pant] find many gaps in the Indian scenario. There is an absence of a quantum roadmap. There is no visibility in the quantum efforts and successes, and there is a lack of required skill power. As the national cybersecurity coordinator this a cause of concern for me.”
+ Highlighting that there was a global race in quantum technology, Lt Gen (retd) Pant said, “My concern is China leading the race. Why am I saying this? Because it has established the first Quantum Satellite Network and distributed entangled photons between three terrestrial base stations separated by 1,200 kilometres. Quantum is at the heart of China’s 13th five-year plan. Chinese dominated in Quantum Computing patents in the last four years. They are presently building a multi-satellite quantum network national lab.”
+ Referring to the situation in India, he Lt Gen (retd) Pant said, “We find a mix of investment from both the private and government sectors. We have companies working on Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), post-quantum cryptography and Artificial Intelligence platform on quantum. The DRDO is also doing very significant work as also the Department of Science Technology, which has launched a quantum-enabled science and technology project.
+ He added, “Before 1993… disaster management was being handled by the Ministry of Agriculture in India because disasters like famine or flood mainly affected agriculture. In 1993, there was an earthquake in Latur and we created the National Disaster Management Authority which now has a presence across the country. Are we waiting for a cybersecurity ‘earthquake’ to strike before we get our act together?”
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