INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JANUARY 1^st - JANUARY 15^th - 2008

RBI ROPES IN HCL COMNET FOR IT OVERHAUL

In one of the RBI's largest IT implementations in the recent times, the central bank is setting up two large data centres in Maharashtra and completely overhauling its IT infrastructure, consisting of legacy applications and software, to move to modern, more robust systems. The exercise will cost RBI close to Rs 100 crore, and the contract has been awarded to software exporter HCL Technologies, sources said. Under the terms of the contract, HCL will set up the two centres and maintain them for the RBI for seven years. A part of the contract also involves moving the different applications that are running across locations and consolidating them at a single place on web and Java based platforms. The RBI spokesperson confirmed the development, but declined to comment on the implication of the move for banks, citing security reasons. An industry source said this was probably RBI's first data centre.

Of the two data centres that RBI is setting up, one would be located at Navi Mumbai (where others such as Bombay Stock Exchange also have their infrastructure) and the second, which will function as a disaster recovery centre, will be based at Nagpur. The implementation and maintenance of the project will be handled by HCL Comnet, the HCL Tech arm that provides infrastructure management services, the source said. HCL Comnet officials declined to speak on the development but said the firm was also taking on domestic clients. The development indicates that HCL Technologies is getting serious about the domestic market, which is becoming more lucrative with larger contracts from the government and private sector players. Last year, Infosys Technologies said it would also take on select domestic contracts in a departure from its earlier stance of not taking on domestic business because it was low margin. After telecom, the government and retail sectors are projected to make the largest IT spends in India.

"Typically, multinationals also to prefer to partner with local vendors for government contracts because the tendering process follows a set of guidelines which they or may not be comfortable with," said one large local vendor. In this case, RBI is learnt to have shortlisted 3-4 players for the tender and selected HCL Tech from among them.