‘Start-ups being encouraged to take cyber security technology to public’

Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and Chairman of the Society of Electronic Transactions and Security (SETS), on Saturday said start-ups were being encouraged to take cybersecurity technology to the public.

Speaking to The Hindu after taking part in the 21st Foundation Day celebrations of SETS, he said it may not be possible for government agencies like SETS to take products they develop to the public and this was where start-ups, especially those in deep tech, come in. “There is no choice but to have a very close relationship with industry. There is money in cryptography, but how to get technology, which is front-end. If Indian companies have to be one up, organisations like SETS are the key,” he said, adding, “you cannot keep private and government players in separate silos.”

Prof. Sood said in the last five years, the number of start-ups had increased from 70 to 67,000 and some of these were into deep tech. “Deep tech is one of the subjects that is on the agenda of the monthly meetings with the Prime Minister,” he added.

Prof. Vijay Raghavan, former Principal Scientific Adviser, explained how a small institution could attain greater value and stated five factors— a select portfolio of problems, quality employees, development of state-of-the-art hardware and software, collaboration with academia and collaboration with the industry.

N. Sarat Chandra Babu, Executive Director, SETS; V.S Subramanian, Northwestern University, the U.S.A; N. Sitaram, former DS&CC, DRDO and Chairman Governing Council, SETS; Parvinder Maini, Scientific Adviser; and D. Lakshmanan, Chief Administrative and Accounts Officer, SETS, participated in the event.

Later, Prof. Sood launched a technology called Quantum Random Number Generator, developed by SETS. He also spent some time inspecting the technical equipment and laboratories on the SETS campus.

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