The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has embarked on a project to build a cutting-edge greenfield next-generation data centre to address capacity constraints, cater to the increasing IT landscape needs, and mitigate region-specific risks.

The data centre, designed to serve the internal requirements of RBI and its subsidiaries, is scheduled to start operations in the financial year 2025, as per the central bank’s annual report for the same fiscal year.

Enhancements in INFINET 3.0

RBI is also in the process of enhancing the Indian Financial Network (INFINET 3.0) by incorporating superior technology, increased bandwidth, and enhanced services. This network, functioning as a closed user group (CUG), is exclusively used by member banks and financial institutions to operate critical payment system applications like RTGS, NEFT, and e-Kuber. The plan is to integrate the latest software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technology into INFINET 3.0 to enable efficient load balancing of links, optimization of voice and video traffic, and application-aware routing. SD-WAN will facilitate centralized network management and zero-touch provisioning.

Global Integration of Indian Rupee

In a move to elevate the presence of the Indian Rupee on global platforms, RBI has devised a solution wherein India’s domestic messaging system SFMS will be extended through a Global SFMS Hub to other nations. Interested countries can link their local messaging systems to the Global SFMS Hub for cross-border payment messaging in their respective local currencies.

Cloud Infrastructure for Financial Sector Data

RBI is also actively working on establishing a cloud facility to bolster the security, integrity, and privacy of data in India’s financial sector. This cloud platform will be rolled out gradually over the medium term. The initial operation will be managed by the wholly-owned subsidiary Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS), which possesses extensive experience in running its cloud platform and offering various cloud services. This initiative aims to enhance data security and mitigate concerns related to jurisdiction, sovereignty, integrity, and confidentiality. RBI had initially announced the setup of this cloud facility in December 2023.

Key Features of the Cloud Facility:

  • On-demand scalability with clustered high availability
  • Disaster recovery with high recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO)
  • Stringent security measures
  • Governance framework for regulatory and security compliances

Plans for FY25

During the financial year 2025, RBI aims to develop several in-house applications to reduce external dependencies and enhance flexibility. These include the development of the e-Kuber 3.0 application by its subsidiary Reserve Bank Information Technology Private (ReBIT), a core accounting platform with a government payment module (GPx), an alternate messaging system framework for domestic and international financial communication, and an alternative mechanism for digital payment systems offering advanced functionalities.