Narendra Modi will inaugurate the RBI’s Tier IV-certified data centre and cybersecurity training institute in Bhubaneswar, expanding the central bank’s disaster-recovery capacity and specialist technology capabilities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the Reserve Bank of India’s new data centre and cybersecurity training institute in Bhubaneswar on October 25, in a move the central bank says is intended to bolster the resilience of India’s financial infrastructure. The announcement was issued ahead of Modi’s visit to Odisha, after programmes in Varanasi, and places the central bank’s latest technology build-out at the centre of a broader push to strengthen digital finance operations.
The Bhubaneswar complex, spread across 18.55 acres, is designed to act as a critical backup to the RBI’s primary data centre in Navi Mumbai, according to reports in The Times of India and The New Indian Express. The site is expected to support data management, disaster recovery and cybersecurity functions, with four separate data centres earmarked for mission-critical payment and settlement systems. The project was initiated after then RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das laid the foundation stone on March 22, 2023.
The RBI says the facilities have received Uptime Institute Tier IV certification, the highest level in that organisation’s data centre classification. In practical terms, that means the infrastructure is built for very high availability and fault tolerance, a crucial feature for systems that underpin payments, settlements and other time-sensitive banking services. However, certification alone cannot eliminate outages or cyber risks; operational discipline, security controls and regular testing remain essential to day-to-day resilience.
Alongside the data centre, the new cybersecurity training institute is expected to focus on enterprise technology training, research and capability building for the banking and financial services sector. According to the official announcement, its remit will include emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, reflecting the pace at which financial institutions are having to adapt their defences. The broader aim is to deepen specialist skills in an area where digital risk is becoming more complex and more expensive to manage.
The choice of Bhubaneswar also signals a widening of India’s financial technology footprint beyond the country’s main metros. While the immediate economic effect will depend on staffing, procurement and the scale of day-to-day operations, the project adds a major institutional asset to Odisha and underscores the RBI’s effort to decentralise some of its most sensitive technology infrastructure. Officials have described the site as one of the largest Tier IV-certified facilities of its kind in the banking, financial services and insurance sector worldwide, though that characterisation reflects the government’s own assessment rather than an independently verified global ranking.
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