India’s data centre capacity has grown significantly in recent years, rising from about 375 MW in 2020 to around 1,500 MW by 2025, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Responding to a query in the Upper House, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada said the country’s data centre ecosystem is expanding steadily alongside the growth of artificial intelligence and digital services.
To support AI development, about 38,231 GPUs have been onboarded through 14 empanelled service providers and data centres under the AI compute capacity framework. These resources are being made available to startups, researchers, academic institutions and other eligible users at a subsidised average rate of ₹65 per hour, roughly one-third of the global average cost.
Data centres supporting these services are located across major technology and industrial hubs, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida and Jamnagar.
The government said it is aware of the infrastructure requirements associated with the expansion of data centres, particularly in terms of electricity and water consumption. According to the Ministry of Power, electricity demand from data centres is projected to reach 13.56 GW by 2031–32.
The country’s national transmission infrastructure is being expanded continuously to meet rising power demand and ensure reliable electricity supply across regions.
The government also noted that Parliament recently passed the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act to strengthen the nuclear energy ecosystem. The legislation is expected to support the development of reliable power solutions for emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence and data centres through the future deployment of small modular and micro nuclear reactors.
The water requirement of data centres depends on the type of cooling technologies used. Regulation and control of groundwater extraction, including for industrial purposes, is governed by guidelines issued by the Ministry of Jal Shakti through notifications dated September 24, 2020, and March 29, 2023.
To reduce water consumption, the industry is increasingly adopting advanced cooling technologies such as direct-to-chip liquid cooling, adiabatic cooling and immersion cooling.
Data centre operators are also deploying high-density racks to support high-performance computing and AI workloads more efficiently, which helps reduce both power and water consumption.
