India Needs 50 Mn Sqft for Data Centers by 2030: Deloitte

New Delhi, May 8 (PTI) India may need an additional 45–50 million square feet of real estate and 40–45 terawatt-hours (TWH) of incremental power for data centres by 2030, to keep pace with the surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), according to Deloitte.

Deloitte, in a report titled "Attracting AI Data Centre Infrastructure Investment in India", highlighted India's cost advantages, renewable energy focus, and strategic location but warned that the country's emergence as a global AI hub hinges on bridging critical infrastructure, talent, and policy gaps.

As per Deloitte India's latest report, the country could require an additional 45–50 million square feet of real estate space and 40–45 Terawatt Hours (TWH) incremental power by 2030 to meet the growing demand for AI.

The report identified six pillars for building a world-class AI ecosystem: real estate, power and utilities, connectivity, compute infrastructure, talent, and policy framework.

It called for targeted interventions, such as a separate category for data centres in the National Building Code and recognition under the Essential Services Maintenance Act, to incentivise specialised infrastructure.

Fast-tracking and simplifying the approvals by setting up data centre facilitation units can help boost the deployment of data centres, it noted.

Deloitte called for policy support, streamlined data localisation norms and the creation of dedicated data centre zones, which it believes will be key to strengthening India's AI infrastructure.

"Additionally, amending data access provisions under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 to reflect data centres' operational realities and excluding data centres from surveillance scopes under the Telecommunication Act, 2023 will provide key policy support required for boosting India's data centre capacity," it said.

Moreover, implementing safe harbour rules for data hosting service providers and establishing data embassies will catalyse investment and spearhead India's data centre revolution," it said.

Deloitte cautioned that rapid data centre expansion will intensify pressure on India's power grid, requiring urgent investments to expand generation capacity, upgrade infrastructure and better integrate renewable energy sources.

Despite significant improvements, Deloitte said, India continues to face network and connectivity challenges such as limited fibre optic reach in rural areas, unreliable high-speed internet and high latency, which limit the country from realising its full potential in building data centres.

"A greater focus on building high-performance compute infrastructure, scalable power and cooling systems and efficient networking infrastructure, with a reconsideration of policy framework, can make India a hotspot for AI-powered data centre development in the coming years," said Neha Aggarwal, Partner, Deloitte India.