India central bank plans 2025 cloud service launch challenging global firms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to launch an ambitious cloud services programme in 2025, marking an unprecedented move by a major central bank to create a sovereign cloud infrastructure that could reshape the country’s rapidly expanding cloud computing landscape.

The initiative, which aims to provide affordable cloud data storage to financial institutions, will directly compete with global technology giants in India’s burgeoning cloud services market, currently valued at $8.3 billion and projected to reach $24.2 billion by 2028, according to International Data Corporation.

“We want to start implementing on a smaller scale in the next few months,” said a senior executive involved in the project, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions. The programme will be gradually expanded over subsequent years, with a particular focus on serving smaller banking and financial services firms that find existing commercial offerings prohibitively expensive.

The project, which follows RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das’s December announcement of plans for a public cloud for the financial services industry, will be initially steered by the central bank’s research wing, the Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS). The development will later proceed in partnership with private sector technology firms, with consultancy firm EY serving as an advisor.

Initial funding will come from the RBI’s substantial asset development fund of Rs229.74bn (£2.14bn), with plans to invite financial firms to take equity stakes at a later stage. The initiative represents a significant step in the central bank’s broader strategy to localise payments and financial data infrastructure.

In a notable departure from existing market dynamics dominated by foreign providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, the RBI has restricted project bidding to companies incorporated in India with demonstrated experience in cloud solutions. Successful bidders will be required to establish data centre facilities in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

The move has already generated significant interest from the domestic technology sector. “We have a humongous amount of interest from private players who want to partner. A significant number of IT companies as well as Indian cloud services companies have expressed their interest,” the source noted.

This strategic initiative could potentially alter the competitive landscape of India’s cloud services sector, currently dominated by international firms, while addressing data sovereignty concerns and providing more cost-effective solutions for smaller financial institutions.

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