The city will play host to Indocrypt 2022, one of the top five globally recognised cryptography conferences — bringing together some of the best analytical and scientific minds in the field and highlighting India’s need to invest in research and development to ring-fence the country from data breach.

The 23rd edition of Indocrypt will take place from December 11 to 14 and be helmed by the TCG Centres for Research Education in Science & Technology (CREST), R.C. Bose Centre for Cryptology and the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).

This year’s edition, which will take place at the Bose Institute’s Sector V Salt Lake campus, had received 88 submissions from 30 different countries. However, only 31 papers by authors from 17 countries were accepted to be considered for presentation at the conference which will have more than 200 national and international participants.

The journey of Indocrypt had begun in 2000 when it was organised by Bimal Roy, a former director of the ISI and a mentor to TCG Crest.

Some of the areas which will be in focus during the three-day conference, co-hosted for the first time by a private sector-led fundamental research organisation, are encryption and decryption, identity management, immutable storage (blockchain technology), key management, quantum cryptography and post quantum cryptography, Roy, a professor in ISI, said.

“There is no dearth of high quality researchers and mathematicians in India who can be deployed to be self-reliant in these sectors. What we need is support, financial and infrastructural, from the government and the private sector to fund research which will develop appropriate products in these segments and make India self-reliant,” Roy, who received the Padma Shree for his contribution to the study of cryptology in India, said.

The BCH (Bose Choudhury and Hocquenghem) protocol that runs behind all mobile phone communication was developed in ISI Calcutta and the R C. Bose Centre for Cryptology and Security of ISI is named after Bose.

As of now, the private and public sector in India have been importing products and applications in these areas from vendors in Israel, Japan and the US.

Cryptology finds wide use in every facet of life whenever data is stored or transmitted in a secure manner to ensure that it only be used by intended recipients and avoid maleficence.

The entire financial sector, e-commerce, power, transportation and defence are some of the key areas where India must develop its own products and applications to keep them secure from attacks from rogue nations and non-state actors.

“There needs to be more awareness about the importance cryptology and its applications holds for the future when we are increasingly going to use artificial intelligence and machine learning. An all out effort must be made to develop our product which will reduce dependence on third parties and vulnerability to possible breach,” Roy, who is also the chair of Indocrypt, added.