RBI Builds High-Security Data Center in Odisha to Safeguard India’s Financial Backbone

Strategic Location Chosen to Minimise Security and Seismic Risks​

New Delhi, February 22: The Reserve Bank of India has established a high-security Greenfield data center in Odisha, reinforcing its efforts to protect critical financial infrastructure and ensure uninterrupted functioning of core banking systems.

The facility, located on an 18.55-acre campus at Info Valley II in Khordha near Bhubaneswar, has been strategically positioned away from India’s western and northern borders. Analysts tracking the sector noted that this reduces exposure to potential cross-border missile or drone threats. The site also lies outside the country’s highest seismic risk zones, lowering vulnerability to major earthquake activity and strengthening the continuity framework for critical financial systems.

Facility to Support Currency, Payments and Regulatory Operations​

The new data center will house core computing systems that support the central bank’s currency management, payment and settlement operations, and regulatory data functions.

This is the second data center operated by the Reserve Bank of India. Its Primary Data Center is located in Kharghar.

According to officials, the Odisha facility has been designed with high levels of redundancy, resilience, and system availability. It incorporates in-built fault tolerance and has achieved Tier IV certification for its design, reflecting compliance with the highest standards of reliability and performance.

Reduced Exposure to Cyber and Network Concentration Risks​

Unlike major data center hubs such as Mumbai and Chennai, Odisha is not a landing point for major subsea communication cables. Analysts observed that situating the facility away from dense digital traffic corridors may help insulate it from concentrated cyber risks and network vulnerabilities.

The strategy appears aligned with recent developments in the banking sector. Last year, a leading commercial bank reportedly shifted its data center operations overnight from Jaipur to Mumbai amid heightened tensions during the India-Pakistan conflict, which involved drone activity along the border.

An email sent to the central bank seeking comments remained unanswered.

Growing Global Trend of Sovereign Data Infrastructure​

Across the world, central banks and major financial institutions are increasingly building and operating their own secured data centers. The emphasis is on data safety, operational control, and systemic resilience rather than dependence on public infrastructure.

Industry officials highlighted that financial data is treated as critical national infrastructure. Key concerns include protection against cyberattacks, avoidance of vendor lock-in, and safeguarding against operational disruptions. Direct control over infrastructure enables stricter enforcement of security protocols, robust redundancy planning, and compliance with regulatory standards.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve Bank operates highly secured facilities such as the East Rutherford Operations Center, which houses key payment and settlement infrastructure. The Odisha facility is being developed with similar layered physical and cyber safeguards to ensure uninterrupted operation of India’s core financial systems.

Odisha’s Resource Advantage and Strategic Depth​

Analysts noted that data centers require significant land, water, and power resources, all of which are available in abundance in Odisha. The location offers strategic depth from potential cross-border threats while avoiding concentration of critical infrastructure in high-risk corridors.

From a geological perspective, large parts of the state fall within lower seismic risk zones compared with the Himalayan belt, further reducing exposure to high-intensity earthquakes.

Expansion into Secure Cloud Infrastructure​

As of 2025, the RBI is also launching a pilot cloud facility with data centers in Mumbai and Hyderabad to provide local cloud storage services to financial firms. The move underlines a broader policy focus on retaining institutional control over mission-critical systems and ensuring uninterrupted functioning of India’s financial backbone under extreme scenarios.

With digital transactions and real-time payment systems expanding rapidly, secure data infrastructure is increasingly being treated not merely as an IT asset but as a cornerstone of financial stability.