NIST's Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization and Quantum Readiness | Dr. Kunal Abhishek

For more details: https://binstitute.org/ss2025/ Dr. Kunal Abhishek is a Scientist ‘E’ at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), where he leads the Cyber Security & Forensics Group, driving advanced cyber security solutions for government organizations. Before joining C-DAC, he served as Group Head of Network Security Research Group at SETS Chennai and spent seven years at Weapons & Electronic Systems Engineering Establishment (WESEE), Indian Navy, developing indigenous cryptographic and information security solutions. He has spearheaded key Government of India PKI initiatives, including Lakshman (a Strategic PKI), e-Abhedya (an ECC- based PKI), and a proprietary elliptic curve-based PKI for defense applications, while designing cryptographic tools like GANGA (a formal and secure RNG for operating systems), GHOST (trusted elliptic curves generation and verification tool), and ADRISHYA (an indigenous mobile VPN). Dr. Kunal is also the Chief Investigator of a project for recovery of ransomware keys being funded from MeitY, Govt. of India. He has also played a pivotal role in national policy development, contributing to India’s Cryptography Roadmap and IT Act, 2000 amendments introducing ECC- based Digital Signature Rules, 2015. He has authored the forthcoming book titled “Deciphering Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures of Ransomware(s) 1989 to 2023”. He is also co-leading a government project on HPC-based quantum accelerators for supercomputers. With 19 years of experience in R&D and deployment, Dr. Kunal’s expertise spans Cryptography, Quantum Technology, Secure Kernel Development and Statistics. He holds an M.S. in Software Systems from BITS Pilani and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Bharathidasan University, specializing in Applied Cryptography, with research published in leading journals and conferences.