PM Modi inaugurates RBI data centre and cybersecurity institute in Odisha's Khordha
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Odisha on Sunday, 25 October 2026, to inaugurate the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s greenfield data centre and cybersecurity training institute at Jatni in Khordha district — a landmark addition to India's financial and digital infrastructure backbone. The facility, spread over 18.55 acres at Info Valley-II near Bhubaneswar, is designed to serve the central bank's long-term computing needs and support the wider financial sector.
What Was Inaugurated
The RBI data centre at Jatni has been developed as a secure, resilient, scalable, and future-ready computing ecosystem for the central bank. Alongside it, Modi inaugurated a dedicated cybersecurity training institute aimed at equipping RBI personnel with advanced capabilities to counter emerging cyber threats. The institute will serve as an institutional platform for cybersecurity and enterprise-technology training, research, and sector-wide capability development, with a focus on frontier technologies including Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and related disciplines relevant to the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector.
Itinerary and Security Arrangements
Modi arrived at Bhubaneswar airport at 4.10 pm IST and travelled by helicopter to the Jatni site, attending the inauguration programme from 4.45 pm to 5.45 pm. He returned to Bhubaneswar airport by road at 5.50 pm and departed for New Delhi at 6.35 pm. Commissionerate Police tightened security arrangements across Bhubaneswar and Khordha, with special provisions along the Jatni–Bhubaneswar airport corridor.
Background and Foundation
The project's foundation stone was laid by then-RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das in March 2023, making Sunday's inauguration the culmination of over two years of construction and infrastructure work. The initiative is part of the RBI's broader strategy to strengthen its technological infrastructure and enhance the security and reliability of its operations.
Significance for Odisha and India's Digital Economy
The establishment of a central bank-grade data facility in Odisha is expected to bolster the state's profile as a destination for information technology and data infrastructure investments. This comes amid India's accelerating push to digitise its financial architecture, with regulators and institutions increasingly treating cybersecurity and data resilience as systemic priorities rather than back-office concerns. Notably, the co-location of a training institute alongside the data centre signals a shift toward building in-house technical depth — a model that analysts and policymakers have advocated for the BFSI sector. The project is seen as a signal to investors and state governments that high-value digital infrastructure is no longer confined to traditional IT hubs.