The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been selected for the Digital Transformation Award 2025 by Central Banking, London, United Kingdom. The RBI has gained international acclaim for its digital transformation and successful implementation of digital initiatives such as the “Pravaah” and “Sarthi” systems. These innovations have significantly enhanced the bank’s operational efficiency, earning recognition for their contribution to modernizing RBI’s internal and external processes.
The award is significant at a time when India expects its digital economy to grow almost twice as fast as the overall economy, contributing to nearly one-fifth of national income by 2030.
“RBI was awarded and recognised for its initiatives, including Pravaah and Sarthi systems, that have been developed by in-house developer team. The awards committee noted how these digital initiatives have reduced use of paper-based submissions thus transforming RBI’s internal and external processes,” RBI said in an X post.
Sarthi, which means ‘charioteer’ in Hindi, has digitized all of the RBI’s internal workflows. Launched in January 2023, it enables employees to store and share documents securely, enhances record management, and provides more data analysis capabilities through reports and dashboards.
The next phase of the digital transformation was introduced in May 2024 with Pravaah, which means ‘smooth flow’ in Hindi. This platform provides a digital channel for external users to submit regulatory applications to the RBI. Once documents are submitted and processed through the Pravaah portal, they are integrated into the Sarthi database, enabling digital management across all RBI offices, supported by centralized cybersecurity systems and digital tracking.
“A commendable accomplishment, reflecting an emphasis towards innovation and efficiency in governance,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
“Digital innovation continues to strengthen India’s financial ecosystem, thus empowering countless lives,” Modi added.
According to Central Banking, Pravaah has successfully digitized over 70 different regulatory applications, supporting the work of nine departments within the RBI. Meanwhile, Sarthi has enhanced the RBI’s operational efficiency by automating various processes. This system enables better task and performance tracking, fosters improved collaboration and integrates seamlessly with other RBI platforms.
The implementation of both Sarthi and Pravaah has led to a significant cultural shift at the central bank, with staff now more receptive to adopting additional digital tools. This change has created a foundation for the IT team to begin planning more ambitious projects, including advancements in cloud computing and the development of new data centers.
RBI has been at the helm of digital adoption and transformation over the last few years. RBI’s outgoing Governor, Shaktikanta Das, cautiously steered India’s financial sector towards adopting emerging technologies, embracing blockchain and pilot launching India’s e-rupee while continuously voicing a complete ban on digital assets trading.
“Our focus in the last six years has been to capitalize as much as possible on harnessing the benefits of new technology. We set up the RBI Innovation Hub in Bengaluru. We have a continuing regulatory sandbox where many innovative ideas and thoughts have come and we have always tried to take them forward. We have given our approval to many of the innovative ideas, thoughts and projects, which came in the regulatory sandbox,” Das said in his last press conference as the RBI chief.
Sanjay Malhotra, who succeeded outgoing Governor Das, said in his first press conference as the 26th Governor of RBI that the central bank will work on using technology to reduce costs and to make financial inclusion more accessible.
“For this, of course, innovation will be key, and while innovation will have to be fostered [and] supported, we will, of course, have to be also conscious of the risks that it may entail. So [while] putting in place requisite safeguards and guardrails without killing or stopping innovation, we will work towards further use of technology,” Malhotra pointed out.
Data from RBI’s annual report show that digital payment fraud in India jumped to a record 14.57 billion rupees ($175 million) in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024 (FY2023-24). In an attempt to tackle rising digital frauds, the RBI introduced an artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML)-based model, MuleHunter.AI, developed by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH). The AI model is also expected to help banks deal with the issue of mule bank accounts, a typical tactic fraudsters use to funnel the proceeds of their fraudulent activities.
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