The greenfield facility in Bhubaneswar is designed to house core computer systems that support the central bank’s currency management, payment and settlement operations and regulatory data functions, analysts and officials said.
“When RBI started operations at its 18.55-acre campus in Info Valley-II, Khordha in 2023, few questioned the location. Besides logistical and operational considerations, strategic factors are also likely to have weighed on the decision makers,” said an analyst tracking the industry.
The Odisha location, he added, is far away from India’s western and northern borders, reducing exposure to potential cross-border missile or drone threats. It also falls outside the country’s highest seismic risk zones, reducing its vulnerability to major earthquake activity – factors that “strengthen the safety and continuity framework for the infrastructure underpinning critical financial systems,” he said.
This is RBI’s second data center; the primary data center is located in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai.
Another analyst noted that unlike Mumbai and Chennai – where a large share of India’s data centers are located – Odisha is not a landing point for major submarine communications cables. By locating the facility away from these hubs and dense digital traffic corridors, the RBI may be seeking an infrastructure that is better insulated against concentrated cyber risks and network vulnerabilities, he added.
The central bank’s location strategy appeared to resonate last year when a leading commercial bank reportedly moved its data center operations from Jaipur to Mumbai overnight amid heightened tensions during the India-Pakistan conflict, with drones deployed along the border.
An email sent to the RBI for comment went unanswered.
Around the world, central banks and top financial institutions are increasingly building and operating their own secure data centers, prioritizing data security, operational control and systemic resilience over dependence on public infrastructure, analysts say.
Industry officials said the security of financial data – seen as critical national infrastructure – is the key driver, alongside the need to protect against cyber-attacks, supplier lock-in and operational disruptions. For central banks in particular, direct control over infrastructure enables stricter enforcement of security protocols, redundancy planning and regulatory compliance.
As digital transactions and real-time payment systems proliferate, authorities are treating secure data infrastructure not just as an IT asset, but also as a cornerstone of financial stability.
In India, RBI is creating a secure, sovereign platform for banking and payment systems, similar to the US Federal Reserve Bank, which operates highly secured facilities such as the East Rutherford Operations Center, which houses key payment and settlement infrastructure. The site is built with layered physical and cybersecurity defenses to ensure uninterrupted operation of key financial systems, and a similar architecture is followed by RBI.
The Odisha facility has been designed and built to ensure high levels of redundancy, resilience and system availability, with built-in fault tolerance, RBI said. It has achieved Tier IV certification for its design, underscoring that it meets the highest standards of reliability and performance.
Besides the RBI, institutions such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the State Bank of India have built or are building their own data centers, officials said.
Analysts noted that data centers require land, water and power – all available in abundance in Odisha – and the location provides strategic depth against potential cross-border threats, while avoiding concentration of critical infrastructure in high-risk corridors. From a geological point of view, large parts of Odisha lie in lower seismic risk zones compared to the Himalayan belt, reducing its vulnerability to high-intensity earthquakes.
“With financial data now being treated as critical national infrastructure, the RBI’s move signals a broader policy direction: maintain tight institutional control over mission-critical systems, minimize exposure to external threats and ensure uninterrupted functioning of the country’s financial backbone under extreme scenarios,” said another analyst.
From 2025, the RBI will also launch a pilot cloud facility with data centers in Mumbai and Hyderabad to provide local cloud storage to financial firms.
Published on February 22, 2026
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