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If you thought AI (artificial intelligence) was the defining tech advancement of our times, think again. Something big and something life-changing is on the horizon, and it promises to be a quantum leap in scientific advancement.

Literally so, for quantum computing is finally knocking at our door. On October 24, Google announced that its Willow quantum computing chip had achieved a major milestone, not only solving an equation that was thought impossible to solve, but doing it 13,000 times faster than the finest supercomputer out there.

“What we’re witnessing globally is not just a race for faster computation, but a redefinition of what computational power itself means. (These) breakthroughs mark the beginning of a new era of scientific enterprise, where advances in physics, information science, and capital investment are finally moving in step,” said Professor Bhanu Das, director (CQuERE) at TCG Centres for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST), Kolkata.

What exactly is quantum computing? This new paradigm is different from supercomputers in that it uses quantum bits or qubits, which exist in multiple states at the same time — the power this unleashes has the ability to correct digital errors in real-time, help in new drug discovery, climate predictive modelling, and in more accurate financial forecasting.

Although this has been talked about for years, this weekend’s developments are the first visible signs that quantum computing may finally be reaching the real world application stage. The United Nations’ (UN) earlier announcement of 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology may just prove to be prophetic, if not a harbinger of things to come.

No wonder everyone’s excited about this new frontier in technology. India’s Union budget for this year has allocated Rs 4,500 crore for research in advanced techs like quantum computing and AI, but sources say the cabinet is set to hike this further after realising its significance. The Trump administration, on Thursday, offered funding for American companies working in quantum computing in return for equity stakes. The aim, ostensibly, is to take leadership in this new breakthrough technology before other countries do.

What are the stakes in it for India? The nation’s National Quantum Mission as well as the efforts to acquire advanced semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, establishing a Quantum Research Park at the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, all symbolise the government’s realisation of how crucial this is in the tech battle of the future.

Of course, considering the nation’s pygmy status in this deep-tech sector, India has, perhaps shrewdly, positioned itself as a niche player, focusing on building smaller and efficient quantum computers with unique applications. The Indian ministry of IT and electronics, along with its cybersecurity watchdog CERT-IN, had recently brought out a white paper on quantum computing, with a focus on cybersecurity.

There’s a reason for this. Already one of the most cyber-targeted countries on the planet, quantum computing could prove to be a worthwhile challenger. “Quantum security is moving from theory to reality faster than many expected. The fact that governments like the US and India are now actively exploring funding for quantum technologies shows how strategic this field has become. It’s no longer just about research — it’s about national security, digital sovereignty, tech sovereignty, data protection at rest and transit, and future-proofing our digital world,” said Sudiptaa Paul Choudhury, CMO of QNu Labs, Bengaluru.

The reason is simply that as quantum computing matures, it will become easy for anyone with access to such computational power to easily break today’s encryption standards. Meaning, any present-day security settings for anything from banking transactions to your e-mail would prove to be helpless.

“Today’s security relies on mathematical problems that would take classical computers millennia to solve, but quantum machines could crack them in hours,” pointed out IC Santhosh Sivasubramani, senior member of IEEE, the New York-headquartered technical professionals organisation.

“As quantum computers inch closer to practical reality, the encryption protecting everything from bank accounts to private communications becomes vulnerable. Even the Signal Protocol, the open-source encryption standard trusted by billions across messaging platforms, would crumble against a sufficiently powerful quantum machine,” he added, quipping, “We are essentially in a race to redesign our digital locks before quantum computers can pick them, and unlike software updates, this requires rethinking the fundamental architecture of how we protect information.”

“The question isn’t whether quantum computers will break current encryption, but whether we’ll have quantum-resistant alternatives deployed before they do,” he said.

A new technological horizon, which comes with its own share of challenges. Sounds familiar?