Overview
- On Wednesday, NITI Aayog and Deloitte published a 'Data Centre Evaluation Framework' and the minister of state for IT said the Centre is preparing a national data‑centre policy.
- The framework says states should stop approving sites piecemeal and instead require campus‑level and corridor planning plus 20–30 year seasonal water assessments.
- It calls for verified electricity and water availability, developer funding of dedicated grid assets when needed, lifecycle and decommissioning plans, and incentives tied to measurable outcomes such as jobs and renewable energy use.
- The guidance arrives against rapid industry growth: India had 271 data centres at the start of 2026, installed capacity was about 1.57 GW by August 2026, and electricity use rose from roughly 13 TWh in 2024 to projections of about 57 TWh by 2030.
- States remain eager to attract projects and the 2026 budget retains a tax holiday for foreign cloud providers through 2047, but local protests in places such as Thane and Visakhapatnam and the unresolved timeline for a binding national policy mean approvals and project plans could face new delays and stricter conditions.