Odisha Hosts RBI Data Centre: PM Stresses Inclusive Banking
Bhubaneswar, October 25: In a major address in Odisha's capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the newly established data centre and cyber security training institute of the Reserve Bank of India on Sunday.
Modi described the occasion as an important moment for Odisha and for the nation. He said the new facilities would benefit people widely and congratulated everyone who worked on the project.
The Prime Minister said the programme demonstrated how India's approach to governance is evolving at speed. He emphasised development, wider reach and inclusion of the last citizen in the chain of services.
Reflecting on the post-independence period, Modi said major cities expanded, large institutions and hospitals came up, and airports were built. Yet a large part of the country waited for essential amenities. Residents of smaller towns and remote areas often had to travel long distances for medical treatment. Air connectivity focused heavily on big cities, and railway stations, vital to ordinary travellers, lacked modern facilities. He said his government had made efforts to correct these imbalances.
He said development, for his government, meant balanced growth across India and opportunities in villages. The objective, he said, was to ensure dignity for poor families and to give every citizen confidence that they would not be left behind.
Modi listed several measures: expressways linking small cities, AIIMS institutions in smaller towns, nearly 1.75 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs in villages, and expanding digital connectivity in remote regions. He said this was the true purpose of governance: easing citizens' lives and opening new avenues for their dreams.
Turning to banking, Modi said despite nationalisation in the 60s and 70s, claimed to be for the poor, half the population remained outside the banking system until 2014.
He said digital banking today gives people 24-hour access to the banking system. He claimed that before 2014, phone banking prevailed, with loans worth thousands of crores given to a few influential people and connected borrowers. Poor people, by contrast, needed a guarantor to open an account. He alleged that this arrangement left the banking system burdened with non-performing assets and near ruin.
Modi said a bank's transformation requires a big vision, sincere intentions and good faith. He said India's banking sector is now among the world's strongest. He also cited a former prime minister from Odisha who had said only 15 paise of a rupee reached people from Delhi. Today, he said, the full rupee reaches the beneficiary.
He cited 13 crore first-time entrepreneurs under the Mudra scheme and 9 crore people brought under social security coverage by the Atal Pension Scheme, including 38 lakh in Odisha. He said 'Nagrik Devo Bhava' was the mantra of good governance.
He added that debit and credit cards were once meant for the rich but are now accessible to every citizen. The last decade, he said, was about bringing banking to the excluded, and the next decade must make banking more trustworthy. He warned that in an era when economies are targeted, India must protect its banking system from cyber criminals.