Modi Opens RBI's Rs 169-Crore Data Centre and Cybersecurity Institute, Warns of 'Cyber Terrorists'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Reserve Bank of India's new data centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on Sunday, Oct. 25. The project cost Rs 169 crore.

Modi used the launch to warn that banks are a target in modern conflict.

"We all know that wars today are not fought with weapons alone. A country can also be weakened by attacks on its economy," he said. "As India grows economically stronger, it becomes equally important to protect our banking system from cybercriminals and cyberterrorists."

The security pitch

Modi said the threat is changing faster than the tools used to meet it. "We cannot tackle these new challenges with outdated systems, old training methods or obsolete tools," he said. "We need modern infrastructure and skilled human resources."

That, he said, is the job of the new training institute. The prime minister did not cite a specific attack, breach or incident on Sunday. He also did not say how many people the institute will train or when its first batch will begin.

The facility was inaugurated at Info Valley-II in Jatni, near Bhubaneswar, according to India.com. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, Odisha Governor Brajmohan Ram, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram attended, along with Deputy Chief Ministers Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida.

The banking record Modi cited

Modi framed the past decade as an access story. He said nearly 600 million Jan Dhan accounts have been opened and that government payments now reach beneficiaries without leakage. He credited the MUDRA, PM SVANidhi and PM Vishwakarma schemes with extending formal credit to small entrepreneurs, street vendors and artisans.

He said 130 million people became first-time entrepreneurs under MUDRA. He also said self-help groups representing 10 crore rural women have received thousands of crores of rupees in bank assistance.

Those figures are the prime minister's own, delivered in a speech. No independent verification of the MUDRA or self-help group numbers was offered at the event.

"The past decade was about taking banking to those deprived of it," Modi said. "The coming decade is about making banking more efficient and reliable."

The attack on Congress

The speech was also political. Modi said banks were nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s in the name of the poor, yet until 2014 more than half the country's population remained outside the banking system.

He accused Congress governments of running what he called a "phone banking system." "In New Delhi, thousands of crores of rupees in bank loans were extended over telephone to a select group of people close to certain Congress leaders," he said. He argued that this favouritism pushed the banking system into non-performing assets and "to the brink of collapse."

He contrasted that with the present. Poor and middle-class families once needed a guarantor to open an account, he said, and debit and credit cards were luxuries for the masses.

Congress has not been quoted responding to the charge. The accusation is Modi's characterisation of past lending, not a finding by a court or regulator in the account of Sunday's event.

He also invoked a former Prime Minister's remark, made, he said, on Odisha's soil, that only 15 paise of every rupee sent from Delhi reached the intended people. Today, Modi said, the full amount reaches the beneficiary's bank account.

Odisha's pitch

Modi said the eastern state has moved from a mineral-based economy to a micro-chip manufacturing hub. He said Odisha will write its future in sectors "from mines to microchips," opening opportunities for young people.

"Development for us means balanced growth of India and opportunities for villages and small towns," he said.

What comes next

The data centre and training institute are now open, but the speech gave no operating timeline, no staffing target and no budget beyond the Rs 169-crore build cost. The measure of the institute will be how many trained cybersecurity personnel it turns out for India's banks, a number the RBI has not yet published.