India way behind global standards in fixing drone security norms: MoD cyber advisor

Speaking on the topic, “Strengthening Drone Indigenisation & Manufacturing in India: Addressing Supply Chain Vulnerabilities & Resilience”, Dr Tiwari talked of the shifting dynamics in the drone world. As the world moves towards post-quantum cryptography, with standards already released in August 2024, we too need to brace and start preparing for post quantum cryptography standards instead of just being dependent on classical cryptography models. The migration to PQC will itself take 5-6 years, and India’s pace and inability to adapt could be a critical vulnerability, the Advisor told the gathering of experts and industry representatives on Tuesday. The seminar was part of two-day long Bharat Drone Manthan- 2.0 organised by the PHD Chambers of Commerce and the industry from Tuesday (11 Mar ’25).

The other capability deficiency he flagged was that while the global drone industry is preparing to transition to post-quantum technologies, India remains unaware of the future of UAV security. “We are not even contemplating the need for post-quantum drones, putting us at a severe disadvantage as the world advances,” he observed. He also advocated indigenous adoption and synchronisation of time and clocks across Indian networks for drones through Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP). He was of the view that the country should have its own indigenous atomic clocks, which are extraordinary means of time-keeping and we should focus on apt R&D in this domain. “We rely on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), but with only around 10 atomic clocks in the country, mostly imported, we are vulnerable to foreign disruptions during operations. World has total around 400 atomic clocks. The US is already moving to Cesium 133 atomic clocks for GNSS and we have maximum efforts being put in startups and making business processes smooth...nothing wrong in this but are we even looking at the foundations of technology?,” Dr Tiwari wondered. He cautioned that if the country does not scale up to next level tech, drones can be easily poisoned through supply chain during wars.

The cyber security expert urged to overcome GNSS dependency soon, reminding the policy managers and other stakeholders that how United States during the Kargil War had shut down the GPS access to India.

Today, while India’s NAVIC, independent regional navigation satellite system, has 11 satellites, 7 have malfunctioned atomic clock issues in addition to recently reported engine failure in Feb 25, he informed while suggesting that these failures should be converted into opportunity to become self-reliant in this domain.

On the chips and processors, he suggested that India will have to frog leap to match use of 7-15 nm size in FPV drones. While today maximum general use drones use 40 and above nm sizes fitted now in the indigenous UAVs.

“Is our vision to match 7-15 nm by 2047? It seems to be a belated vision...world is moving ahead with 3d chips, neuromorphic computing, quantum computing, spintronics, carbon nanotubes and molecular computing. Are we even planning or thinking in that direction? Our national chip mission is 28nm by 2026 that too with collaboration. So is this collaboration permanent for future?” Dr Tiwari said.