PM Modi to attend IAF air show in Varanasi, open RBI's Rs 169-crore data centre in Odisha
The Prime Minister will open a garment unit and watch the Air Force's 94th-anniversary display over the Ganga before inaugurating the RBI's backup data centre and cybersecurity institute near Bhubaneswar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a two-state schedule on Sunday, with an Indian Air Force air show in Varanasi and the opening of a new Reserve Bank of India data facility in Odisha, according to the programme announced by the Prime Minister's Office.
Air show over the Ganga
In Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency, Modi is expected to open a garment manufacturing unit run by Arvind Limited around 11 am. The PMO has said the unit will employ mostly women and help connect local production with international buyers.
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He will then attend the IAF's aerial display at Namo Ghat as chief guest, an event marking the Air Force's 94th anniversary. The show, themed "Wings over Ganges", is set to feature the Tejas, Rafale and Su-30MKI fighters and the Prachand light combat helicopter, along with the Surya Kiran and Sarang display teams, according to Open magazine.
Local authorities expect a very large crowd. Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal said nearly 12,000 police and security personnel had been deployed, and the viewing area along the ghats has been split into about 500 enclosures, All India Radio reported.
RBI's backup data centre
Later in the day, Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the RBI's greenfield Data Centre and Enterprise Computing and Cybersecurity Training Institute at Info Valley-II near Bhubaneswar. The project is valued at about Rs 169 crore and sits on an 18.55-acre campus, Odisha Bytes reported.
The facility will act as a backup to the central bank's main data centre at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai and support currency management, payment and settlement systems and regulatory data. The foundation stone was laid in March 2023 by then RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. Reports say the site was chosen partly because it is away from seismic fault lines and from the concentration of infrastructure in Mumbai and Chennai.
Why it matters
Payment systems such as UPI and RTGS now carry a very large share of India's money flows, so a second, geographically separate data centre adds resilience against outages, natural disasters and cyberattacks. The attached training institute is meant to build skills for banks and financial firms in areas such as cybersecurity, AI and quantum computing.
The Odisha visit comes as the state prepares for a likely cyclone later in the week.
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