The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the key lending rate or repo rate to 5.40%.
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India’s central bank will launch a pilot program in 2025 to provide local cloud data storage to financial companies at affordable prices, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The Reserve Bank of India’s planned cloud platform will use local IT companies to compete with the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud, a first such initiative by a major global central bank.
The booming cloud services market in Asia’s third-largest economy is expected to reach US$8.3 billion by 2023 and is expected to grow to US$24.2 billion by 2028. Report, open a new tab It is run by international data companies but is dominated by foreign companies.
“We hope to start small-scale implementation in the coming months,” said one of the two sources, a senior executive in charge of the project.
The pilot program will be expanded in phases over the next few years, the sources said, adding that the cloud service will be built keeping in mind the needs of smaller banks and financial services companies that find existing products unaffordable.
In December last year, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das announced plans to build a public cloud for the financial services industry.
Details of the project have not been previously reported. The Reserve Bank of India did not respond to a Reuters email seeking details of the project.
The initial work on cloud computing is being driven by the Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services Department, the central bank’s research arm. The project will then be further developed in partnership with one or more private technology companies, sources said.
Consultants Ernst & Young have been appointed as consultants on the project.
The project will initially be funded by the central bank’s 229.74 billion Indian rupees ($2.72 billion) asset development fund, the second source said, adding that the central bank would later invite financial firms to take equity stakes.
Reuters was unable to determine the estimated final cost of the project.
Data localization is imperative
Partnering with local IT companies to build cloud services is another step in the central bank’s push to localize payments and financial data.
According to procurement documents published on the IFTAS website in October, the Reserve Bank of India only invited bids for the project from companies registered in India and with experience in building cloud-related solutions.
Companies can apply on their own or as part of a consortium and will need to set up data center facilities in Mumbai and Hyderabad.
“We have a lot of interest (from private players who want to collaborate). A large number of IT companies as well as Indian cloud services companies have expressed their interest,” the source added.
