Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lauded the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for winning the Digital Transformation Award 2025, instituted by London’s Central Banking. Congratulating the RBI, the Prime Minister took to X and wrote, “A commendable accomplishment, reflecting an emphasis towards innovation and efficiency in governance. Digital innovation continues to strengthen India’s financial ecosystem, thus empowering countless lives.”
The RBI was selected for this accolade in recognition of its Pravaah and Sarthi digital initiatives, which have revolutionised internal and external processes by significantly reducing paper-based submissions. Central Banking, in its statement, highlighted that these initiatives have been instrumental in streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency within the RBI.
What is Sarthi and Pravaah?
The Sarthi system, named after the Hindi word for ‘charioteer’, was launched in January 2023 to digitise all of RBI’s internal workflows. It enables employees to securely store and share documents, improving record management and enhancing data analysis through reports and dashboards.
Building upon this foundation, the Pravaah system, meaning ‘smooth flow’ in Hindi, was introduced in May 2024. This platform allows external users to submit regulatory applications digitally, seamlessly integrating with the Sarthi database for processing within RBI’s offices. The transition to a fully digital infrastructure, supported by centralised cybersecurity and tracking mechanisms, has significantly improved transparency and efficiency.
Announcing the achievement on X, the RBI lauded its in-house development team for conceptualising and executing these initiatives. “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,” the post read.