The Rs 169 crore facility gives the RBI geographically separated backup capacity for critical systems including NEFT, RTGS and e-Kuber, while a new institute will train financial-sector staff in emerging technologies and cyber security.
The Reserve Bank of India’s new data centre in Bhubaneswar is intended to give the central bank more room to absorb outages and keep core financial services running, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Sunday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the facility in Odisha. The project, built at a cost of Rs 169 crore, is designed to support the resilience of payment systems and other mission-critical banking operations.
Malhotra said the centre has been built to the highest Tier-IV standard certified by the Uptime Institute, a designation that signals a very high level of redundancy and fault tolerance. He also said the RBI will run the complex without relying on third-party cloud providers, underlining the bank’s effort to retain direct control over essential infrastructure.
The new site is expected to back the RBI’s round-the-clock payments architecture, including National Electronic Funds Transfer and Real Time Gross Settlement. Although the Unified Payments Interface is operated by the National Payments Corporation of India, final settlement still passes through the central bank’s systems, meaning the new facility will sit at the heart of India’s digital payments plumbing. Other systems hosted there will include e-Kuber, used by the Centre, state governments and banks, as well as the RBI’s integrated ombudsman platform and applications linked to licences and approvals.
According to the Business Standard report, the decision to place the facility in Bhubaneswar reflects a resilience strategy as much as an expansion of capacity. The RBI already has three data centres in Maharashtra, and the Odisha location gives it geographical separation from those existing sites, along with placement in a different seismic zone. Malhotra said the region also offered a useful talent base.
The project also includes a cybersecurity training institute, which will be used to train RBI staff, bank employees and other financial-sector personnel in emerging technologies and cyber security. Malhotra said the institute will cover areas such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, quantum technology and blockchain, while also supporting research aimed at improving the safety and efficiency of financial systems. The RBI has applied for a platinum rating from the Indian Green Building Council for the complex, which would recognise its energy and water efficiency, and the broader site has been described as a major step in strengthening India’s digital financial infrastructure. According to reports from Economic Times, Moneycontrol and other outlets, the complex spans 18.55 acres at Info Valley-II in Jatni, near Bhubaneswar.
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