Bhubaneswar: Blaming the Congress for allowing politically connected borrowers to secure loans worth thousands of crores prior to 2014, and pushing banks to deal with non-performing assets (NPAs), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his govt has democratised access to financial services, while warning that cyber terrorists pose a growing threat to the economy and national security.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates RBI Data Centre and Cyber Security Training institute in Bhubaneswar in presence of Odisha Governor Braj Mohan Ram , Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi , at Info Vally II at Jatani in Khordha near Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates RBI Data Centre and Cyber Security Training institute in Bhubaneswar in presence of Odisha Governor Braj Mohan Ram , Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi , RBI Governor and Other ministers and dignitaries , at Info Vally II at Jatani in Khordha near Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
“There was an era of phone banking when some special people in Delhi and those connected to them received loans worth thousands of crores through a phone call, while poor and middle-class families needed guarantees even to open bank accounts,” PM said after inaugurating the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Data Centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute in the city.Claiming that politically connected individuals benefited from easy access to bank loans before 2014, Modi said the country’s financial system had suffered because of indiscriminate lending to a select group of influential borrowers. Modi said the resulting bad loans pushed banks into a deep NPA crisis.Contrasting the previous system with the current govt’s emphasis on digital banking, PM said his govt has brought millions into the formal banking network.Modi cited initiatives such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra loans, PM SVANidhi and PM Vishwakarma as examples of efforts that expanded financial inclusion and enabled first-time entrepreneurs, street vendors, artisans and self-help groups to access institutional credit. Referring to direct benefit transfer mechanisms, he said funds now reach beneficiaries directly, eliminating leakages that were once common in welfare delivery.PM also stressed the need to secure India’s digital financial infrastructure as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. “If a country has to be weakened, it can also be done by attacking its economy,” he said, adding that the nation’s banking system must be protected from “cyber looters and cyber terrorists”.He said modern conflicts are no longer fought solely with conventional weapons and that financial and cyber resilience have become critical elements of national security. Emerging threats require modern infrastructure, advanced computing capabilities and up-to-date training systems, making the RBI’s new facilities particularly significant.Highlighting Odisha’s growing role in India’s technology-driven growth story, Modi said the state was evolving “from mines to microchips”, with investments expanding in semiconductors, electronics, data centres and advanced computing. He added that eastern India, especially Odisha, was emerging as an important growth engine for a developed India.Speaking on the occasion, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India aspires to build a financial system “that the world trusts and every Indian can rely upon”. She described the new Bhubaneswar campus as a significant step towards that goal.Spread across 18.55 acres and built at a cost of Rs 170 crore, the facility has been designed to meet RBI’s growing computing requirements while providing a secure, scalable and resilient digital ecosystem. The campus houses four state-of-the-art data centres that will host mission-critical payment and settlement systems and other key RBI functions.Officials said the facility is certified to the Uptime Institute’s Tier IV standard, the highest global benchmark for data-centre infrastructure and operational resilience, making it one of the largest such facilities in the global banking and financial services sector.
