Modi to open Arvind garment unit in Varanasi and RBI data centre in Bhubaneswar on Sunday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will spend Sunday in two states, opening a garment factory in his Varanasi constituency, watching the Indian Air Force fly over the Ganga and then inaugurating the Reserve Bank of India’s new data centre in Bhubaneswar, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday.

The PMO’s note puts the first engagement at about 11 am, when Modi is due to open a garment manufacturing facility of Arvind Limited in Varanasi. The government describes the unit as predominantly women-led and says it is meant to strengthen textile and apparel manufacturing in the region, create jobs, particularly for women, and connect garments made in Varanasi with buyers abroad. The company has a global customer base, the note says. It gives no figure for the plant’s capacity or the number of people it will employ.

Over the Ganga

At about 1 pm the Prime Minister will be at Namo Ghat for the Air Force Day Aerial Display 2026, held to mark the IAF’s 94th anniversary under the theme “Wings over Ganges”. The Tejas, the LCH Prachand attack helicopter, the Su-30MKI and the Rafale are on the list, along with transport aircraft and machines from the Navy and the Army. The Surya Kiran aerobatic team and the Sarang helicopter display team are also due to perform.

Displays over the river were also scheduled for 22 and 24 October ahead of Sunday’s show. Varanasi Police have planned extra deployments along the ghats and main roads, separate routes for VIPs and the public, and green corridors to hospitals.

The RBI’s new computing base

Modi then flies to Bhubaneswar, where at about 4:45 pm he is to inaugurate the RBI’s Data Centre and its Cybersecurity Training Institute and address a gathering.

The data centre is designed to meet the central bank’s computing needs and give it, and the wider financial sector, what the PMO calls a “secure, resilient, scalable and future ready” technology base. It comprises four data centres that will host mission-critical payment and settlement systems and other flagship RBI systems. The facility holds Uptime Institute Tier IV certification, the highest tier for data centre resilience, and the PMO says it is among the largest Tier IV-certified facilities in the global banking, financial services and insurance sector.

The training institute will offer cybersecurity and enterprise technology training and research for the sector, with a focus on quantum computing, artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies.

The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police have announced traffic restrictions from 5:40 pm to 6:40 pm on the route from the data centre to Biju Patnaik International Airport.

What changed

Earlier plans circulated in Varanasi had the Prime Minister arriving on Saturday and going on to Kedarnath to review the corridor project there. The PMO’s itinerary covers only Sunday’s three engagements and does not mention Kedarnath. The government has presented the day as a showcase for jobs, defence capability and the security of the financial system.