The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to roll out a cloud storage pilot program in 2025 for financial institutions.

The RBI initiative will see the bank providing cloud storage services to other Indian financial institutions and aims to challenge the dominance of global tech giants in the country.

First reported by Reuters, and citing two "sources familiar with the matter," the pilot program will be funded by RBI's asset development fund of $2.72 billion.

The bank plans to invite other financial firms to take equity stakes in the venture in the future.

Plans for the project were first shared in December 2023, and the bank will be working in partnership with "private sector technology firms" that are incorporated in India.

Technology companies wishing to participate must establish data centers in Mumbai and Hyderabad either independently or as part of consortiums.

“We want to start implementing on a smaller scale in the next few months,” one of the sources told Reuters. The project will then be expanded in phases over the coming years. The source added that the project will keep in mind the needs of smaller banking and financial firms unable to afford existing cloud storage offerings.

"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 added.

Initial work on the project is being driven by RBI's research wing - the Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services. Consulting firm EY is acting as an advisor for the project.

DCD has reached out to RBI for more information.