Counting on Quantum - A quick peek inside India's Refrigerator

The menu of tomorrow's IT courses would be completely changed by what's currently being marinated in quantum computing trays. From cryptography to heavy simulations to huge AI workloads to Cloud. Let’s open the doors of this cold, but busy, kitchen area for a minute to get a sense of what Indian ice-boxes are up to.

- Pratima H

There used to be a time when refrigerators were assessed on 'Who's the biggest'. As sensors, smartphones, and analytics crawled around those egg trays, the slogan changed to Who's the smartest. We shouldn't be surprised if the next neon-sign becomes about 'who is everything. A dish-washer, a geyser, an oven, a Butlerall rolled into one silicon-weds-steel marvel.

The battle-cry and arsenal of Quantum Computing could be following that same path. And that should be good news for India because now the game can be won at any level-processors, applications, software, architecture, supercomputers, devices, cooling rooms - anything. Are we getting these new shelves and lights right as we build our quantum advantage? How well did we do in 2024?

THE TUPPERWARE-CHECK

But first, why does talking about Quantum Computing (as we wrap up 2024) matter? Juniper Research has estimated total quantum technology revenue in 2024 stood around $2.7 billion and that's something that can easily rise to $9.4 billion by 2030.

As to the post-quantum cryptography market alone (which, interestingly, is driven by the rising need to secure digital infrastructure against quantum computing threats and hence to advancements in cryptographic algorithms) - that market is galloping fast to reach $17.69 billion by 2034 - up from $356.4 million in 2023 (ResearchandMarkets data).