India Data Centre Capacity Expands to 1500 MW

17 Mar 2026 CW Team

The government has taken account of the infrastructure needs of the sector, including electricity and water supply. Expected electricity demand from growth in artificial intelligence and other large scale data centres has been factored into planning, with demand estimated to reach 13.56 gigawatt (GW) by 2031–32. National transmission infrastructure is being expanded to meet growing electricity needs and is reported to be adequately prepared to ensure reliable power supply across regions.

The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, known as the SHANTI Act, has been passed to strengthen the nuclear energy ecosystem. The act is intended to support development of reliable power solutions for emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence and data centres by enabling future deployment of small modular and micro nuclear reactors. Planning for energy supply is therefore positioned to accommodate the anticipated rise in compute intensive facilities.

Water requirements vary according to the cooling technologies deployed, with regulation of groundwater extraction for industrial use governed by guidelines issued by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. To minimise water use, the industry is adopting advanced cooling approaches including direct to chip liquid cooling, adiabatic cooling and immersion cooling. Providers are also deploying high density racks to more efficiently support high performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads, reducing both power and water consumption. The information was submitted to the Rajya Sabha on 13 March 2026 by the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.

The data centre industry in India has expanded markedly, with total capacity rising from about 375 megawatt (MW) in 2020 to around 1,500 MW by 2025. To support artificial intelligence (AI) development, about 38,231 graphics processing units (GPUs) have been onboarded through 14 empanelled service providers and data centres under the AI compute capacity framework. These resources are being provided to start-ups, researchers, academia and other eligible users at a subsidised average rate of Rs65 per hour, which is about one-third of the global average. Data centres are distributed across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida and Jamnagar. The government has taken account of the infrastructure needs of the sector, including electricity and water supply. Expected electricity demand from growth in artificial intelligence and other large scale data centres has been factored into planning, with demand estimated to reach 13.56 gigawatt (GW) by 2031–32. National transmission infrastructure is being expanded to meet growing electricity needs and is reported to be adequately prepared to ensure reliable power supply across regions. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, known as the SHANTI Act, has been passed to strengthen the nuclear energy ecosystem. The act is intended to support development of reliable power solutions for emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence and data centres by enabling future deployment of small modular and micro nuclear reactors. Planning for energy supply is therefore positioned to accommodate the anticipated rise in compute intensive facilities. Water requirements vary according to the cooling technologies deployed, with regulation of groundwater extraction for industrial use governed by guidelines issued by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. To minimise water use, the industry is adopting advanced cooling approaches including direct to chip liquid cooling, adiabatic cooling and immersion cooling. Providers are also deploying high density racks to more efficiently support high performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads, reducing both power and water consumption. The information was submitted to the Rajya Sabha on 13 March 2026 by the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.

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