Dr Ajai Chowdhry, Co-founder of HCL and Chairman of the Mission Governing Board for the National Quantum Mission
Foreseeing a major threat to India’s financial system, the National Quantum Mission (NQM) is establishing a task force to help banks adopt quantum technology for cybersecurity, financial modelling, and data analysis.
According to Dr Ajai Chowdhry, Co-founder of HCL and Chairman of the Mission Governing Board for the National Quantum Mission (NQM), institutions like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) need to set up a 4-5 year implementation plan to switch to quantum secure networks to avoid “deep trouble” for the sector in the future.
“If there is a powerful enough quantum computer, it will break RBI’s current cyber security defences. Our whole financial system will go down. Earlier, the threat seemed far away, but in the last six months, it looks to be much earlier, around 2028 or 2029. China is at the forefront of this threat, having made major strides in quantum computing,” said Chowdhry.
The task force formed under the NQM and headed by Dr. Gulshan Rai of Cert-IN will help banks develop guidelines to transition from current technologies to quantum technologies. According to other sources knowledgeable about the task force, individuals from the Department of Telecommunications, startups, the Data Security Council of India, and the RBI will also be part of this team. A version of these guidelines is expected in the coming months after required revisions and waiting for the government, said sources.
In this switch-up, Indian institutions will require two key technologies: Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) for secure communication. Sources indicate that the NQM’s first milestone in terms of a long-distance QKD network is likely to be ready by the end of July or early August.
Earlier, during the Indian Bank Association’s fourth CISO Summit, chief guest Shailendra Trivedi, Chief General Manager at the Department of Information Technology of the RBI had stressed the benefits quantum technology for banking. Stating that institutions like the Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and younger entities like the Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt. Ltd has been working on quantum cryptography, authentication methods, etc. Trivedi, during the keynote address, encouraged those working in the quantum field to get in touch with the IDRBT to work on cryptographic algorithms.
Published on July 2, 2025
