वयम् · Wednesday, 21 October 2026 · BengaluruInstagramYouTubeRSS
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Government body · Mumbai

Reserve Bank of India

Its April 2018 payment-data circular — store it “only in India” — did more to create Indian data-centre demand than any incentive.

AI & Data Centers deskrbi.org.in ↗

In Vayam’s reporting

3 stories
An empty, dusty telecom room with rows of beige CRT terminals on metal tables, grey equipment racks with coiled cables, and a single box on a side table glowing with a small blue light.
AI & Data Centers· History

Online before China? The 1995 boast, and the state decisions behind India's data centres

VSNL's Independence Day internet was not first in Asia. What it began was a chain of state choices, from STPI's earth stations to RBI's data rule, that private capital has filled ever since.

Itihas··7 min
A roadside tea stall at dusk with glasses of chai and a steel kettle on a wooden counter, a blank cobalt-framed payment stand in the foreground, and a large windowless grey concrete building with rooftop cooling units across a busy highway.
AI & Data Centers· Explainer

Your ₹20 UPI payment is not allowed to leave India. That rule built buildings

Since April 2018 the RBI has required every payment record to be stored only in India. Follow one chai-stall QR scan and you find the anchor tenant of India's data-centre industry.

Sutradhar··7 min
A long windowless grey data hall at dusk on the edge of an Indian city, a single cobalt-blue light strip along its facade, power lines overhead.
AI & Data Centers· Essay

A desk for the buildings with no windows

India's newest heavy industry has no chimney and no shift horn. It has land, power, water, subsidies and a cable landing. Why Vayam is opening a desk for it.

Vayam Desk··4 min