PM Modi inaugurates Rs 169-crore RBI data centre in Odisha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the Reserve Bank of India’s Rs 169-crore Data Centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute at Info Valley-II in Jatni, near Bhubaneswar. The new facility, spread across 18.55 acres, is designed to support mission-critical banking operations, protect sensitive financial data, and enhance the resilience of digital payment and settlement systems. Officials selected the location for its geographical stability, placing it away from seismically active zones and high-risk international border areas to reduce exposure to natural disasters and geopolitical vulnerabilities.

That site selection reflects a broader push to decentralize critical technological assets away from established metropolitan hubs. At the same time, it highlights the vulnerability of India's rapidly expanding digital financial ecosystem to localized disruptions. The project's foundation stone was laid by then RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on March 22, 2023, marking the completion of an infrastructure initiative aimed at meeting the central bank's evolving computing needs.

Securing the Digital Financial Backbone

The data centre has received the Uptime Institute’s Tier IV certification, a globally recognized benchmark for data centre infrastructure resilience that places the facility in the highest tier of the certification framework. This certification emphasizes fault tolerance and continuity of critical operations, capabilities that are essential for financial institutions where prolonged technology disruptions can affect transaction processing and public confidence in electronic systems. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, Odisha Governor Brajmohan Ram, and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi attended the inauguration.

Alongside the data centre, the Cybersecurity Training Institute will focus on professional training, applied research, and capacity building in cybersecurity, enterprise computing, and frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. As financial institutions rely increasingly on interconnected digital platforms, the threat landscape has expanded to include data breaches, ransomware, identity theft, payment fraud, and attacks targeting critical IT infrastructure. The institute aims to develop specialized expertise across the banking, financial services, and insurance sector to respond to these evolving cyber risks.

I assure the young friends of Odisha that the big dreams you have envisioned will surely come true. We will do it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

That optimism accompanies a sharp political contrast with previous administrations. Addressing the inauguration programme, Modi slammed Congress-era policies by stating that earlier only billionaires got loans. He contrasted this with technology-enabled direct benefit transfers, which allow government assistance to be credited directly to beneficiaries’ bank accounts. He also noted that payment instruments like debit and credit cards, once perceived as accessible primarily to wealthier sections of society, have become widely available.

Industrial Expansion and Regional Growth

Modi asserted that Odisha is poised to create new opportunities for its youth through investments in data centres, advanced computing, semiconductors, and electronics. Asserting that the state is set to write a new future from mines to microchips, he pointed to the expansion of mineral-based industries alongside the development of a new ecosystem for semiconductors and electronics. He added that eastern India is becoming an important growth engine for the vision of a developed India, aided by the recent formation of the BJP government in the state.

For citizens, businesses, and investors, the stakes of this infrastructure rollout are direct. The focus of the coming decade will be to make banking more efficient and reliable following the expansion of access over the past ten years. However, the success of that transition rests entirely on the operational security of the systems housed in Jatni.

• Hosting mission-critical payment and settlement systems for the Reserve Bank of India
• Providing professional training and applied research in cybersecurity and enterprise technology
• Supporting the expanding technology requirements of the banking, financial services, and insurance sector

The facility represents an investment in computing capacity and operational resilience. Yet it also leaves the central bank facing the challenge of staying ahead of sophisticated cyber threats as digital transactions grow. As India's digital economy expands, the strength of its financial system will depend on how effectively training institutes can translate research into active defense mechanisms.