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Why India is falling behind in the Y2Q race

Samarth Bansal
Samarth Bansal
1 min read
Why India is falling behind in the Y2Q race
Photo by Michael Dziedzic / Unsplash

Encryption forms the backbone of secure cyberspace. It helps to protect the data we send, receive or store. Behind the high degree of confidence in the security of the most commonly used encryption algorithms, like RSA, lies an assumption: modern computers, including the fastest supercomputers, will take forever to factor a large number that is a product of two prime numbers.

That is about to change. We are heading into the era of quantum computing, the technology that will exponentially speed-up the processing power of classical computers, and solve problems that today’s fastest supercomputers can’t even touch in a few seconds.

That also includes the ability to factor large numbers, meaning the underlying assumptions powering modern encryption won’t hold when a practical quantum computer becomes a reality, which can lead to a complete breakdown of the current encryption infrastructure.

As the US and China lead the global race in quantum tech, India lags far behind. Why is that? Read the story in Mint to know more.

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