Mumbai, March 15
The Reserve Bank of India has won the Digital Transformation Award 2025, instituted by Central Banking, London.
The RBI has been selected for the award for rolling out digital initiatives, including Pravaah and Sarthi systems, that have reduced the use of paper-based submissions to transform its internal and external processes.
Central Banking, in a press statement said that the two initiatives have been key to this work.
Sarthi, the Hindi word for ‘charioteer,’ digitised all the RBI's internal workflows. It went live in January 2023, helping employees to store and share documents securely, improving record management and increasing the options for data analysis through reports and dashboards.
A second stage of the digital transformation process launched in May 2024 as Pravaah, which means 'smooth flow' in Hindi, created a digitised means for external users to submit regulatory applications to the RBI.
Documents submitted and processed through the Pravaah portal are then plugged into the Sarthi database, where they can be handled digitally across the RBI's offices, with centralised cyber security systems and digital tracking.
It also said that the successful adoption of Sarthi is partly due to the team's work in putting in place the necessary support structures.
The IT team engaged in a lengthy collaborative process with staff to understand their needs before building the system, and appointed senior 'nodal officers' from each department to champion the upgrade.
The online Sarthi Pathshala ('school') helps users become familiar with the system, and the Pathshala was rolled out alongside extensive in-person training. Additionally, Sarthi mitras ('friends') are people in each RBI office who know the system well and can help colleagues with any issues.
The RBI announced that it has been selected for the award in a post on X.
“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 RBI said.