India Data Centre Watch

India's AI and data centre buildout

India Data Centre Watch

A developing, independent, non-commercial public-interest research project and tracker for following India's data centre buildout across investment, state incentives, land, water, power, jobs, local concerns, legal records, and global governance patterns. Source-linked records are being added as reviewed material becomes ready for publication.

Explore the evidence Read the methodology

India Data Centre Watch follows the evidence behind India's data centre buildout: policies, investments, resource needs, community concerns, safeguards, and gaps in public information.

01 / Policy

State Policy Tracker

Compare data centre policies, incentives, expiry windows, and watch points across Indian states.

Open tracker 02 / Records

Ground Reports

Follow source-linked records on land, water, electricity, grid connections, local objections, and accountability questions.

Read cases 03 / Conflicts

Conflict Tracker

Search India-based public records linked to land, water, environmental approvals, and local objections.

Open conflicts 04 / Legal

Case Tracker

Track litigation and legally significant proceedings around data centre projects and clearances.

Open cases 05 / Parliament

Parliament Watch

A forthcoming space for source-checked parliamentary questions and official records on India's data centre buildout.

Preview space 06 / Comparisons

Global Connections

Connect India's data centre debate to disclosure rules, moratoriums, community campaigns, and governance models elsewhere.

Compare patterns

Verified Signals

The indicators to watch

Each card links a public claim, estimate, or official statement to its source, so readers can check the basis for the record.

Source-linked estimate

Capacity is scaling quickly

CEEW reports installed capacity rising from about 520 MW in 2020 to almost 1.5 GW by mid-2025, with 4.5-6.5 GW projected by 2030.

CEEW white paper
Official statement

Budget 2026 created a long runway

PIB says eligible foreign cloud providers using notified India-based data centres can receive a tax holiday through tax year 2046-47.

PIB explainer
Source-linked estimate

Water and power are material

CEEW estimates data centres used roughly 0.5% of national electricity and about 150 billion litres of water in 2025, both expected to more than double by 2030.

CEEW white paper
Follow-up question

Jobs need project-level checking

Investigations based on environmental-clearance filings report a very high investment-per-permanent-job ratio. This is powerful, but should be tracked project by project.

The Wire / ERC

Policy Tracker

Where Indian states are competing

Filter Indian state policies to compare incentives, land and building relaxations, power and water promises, jobs claims, labour or gender safeguards, and the public source behind each entry.

Common incentives

Stamp-duty relief, electricity-duty waivers, power-tariff support, SGST reimbursement, capital subsidy, and single-window approvals recur across several states.

Land and construction

Many policies relax zoning, FAR, parking, land-conversion, or building norms. Public records are uneven on land acquisition, consent, and local process.

Jobs, labour, gender

Jobs are often promised, but project-level job numbers, local hiring, worker conditions, women’s safety clauses, and grievance systems are unevenly disclosed.

Water and power

Assured supply, dual grids, renewable-energy requirements, desalination, backup diesel, and open-access power can be read alongside local scarcity and grid-cost information where available.

State Instrument and source Status Common across states Stands out or needs checking

State outline mini-maps use Natural Earth Admin-1 States/Provinces boundary data, via DataHub geo-ne-admin1. Natural Earth vector data is public domain; the DataHub GeoJSON package is released under ODC-PDDL-1.0. Natural Earth DataHub

Ground Reports

Public records that need follow-up

Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Google / AdaniConneX AI hub

Official announcements describe a $15B, gigawatt-scale Vizag AI hub. Civil-society and reporting sources raise questions about land, Dalit land claims, public incentives, reservoir proximity, and environmental-clearance documents.

Mumbai and Navi Mumbai

Urban power, coal, and displacement

Reporting links data-centre growth to guaranteed electricity supply, coal-linked grids, and unequal service reliability for nearby low-income communities.

Telangana

Microsoft and Amazon sites

The Microsoft Mekaguda PIL is the clearest court-linked record currently tracked. Related reporting raises questions about land, consultation, panchayat process, lake protection, and livelihoods.

What Is Still Missing

Evidence gaps the public should be able to see

India has investment announcements and incentive policies, but project-level public information is uneven on costs, resource use, local process, safeguards, and accountability.

Project-level disclosures

Most campuses need a public file with MW capacity, acreage, water source, power source, backup fuel, approvals, promised jobs, operator, owner, and current status.

Public-cost accounting

State policies disclose incentives in different formats. Comparable public metrics for total fiscal value, land terms, water tariff treatment, grid-upgrade commitments, and job conditions are often not available in one place.

Cumulative impact review

Environmental-clearance records often assess projects one by one. Regional records can be read for combined information on water stress, grid demand, land conversion, coal dependence, heat, and flood risk.

People missing from the record

Public records and reporting often give limited detail on construction workers, facility staff, panchayats, fishers, urban informal settlements, women organisers, and local utilities.

Global Connections

India is part of a wider infrastructure contest

Comparable records abroad help identify what to connect next: disclosure law, grid-cost rules, water reporting, local decision-making, and organised community networks.

European Union

Mandatory reporting

The EU is building a data-centre reporting system for energy performance and water footprint. India could use it as a transparency template.

European Commission
Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Netherlands, US

Opacity repeats across countries

The Maybe's comparative study identifies recurring patterns: jobs-and-growth narratives, hard-to-access project data, and communities trying to understand projects after siting decisions are advanced.

Where Cloud Meets Cement
United States

Coalitions and pauses

US campaigns increasingly connect local land, water, power bills, health, labour, and climate concerns into statewide or national data-centre moratorium demands.

Stop Data Centers Coalition
Netherlands

Zeewolde as a governance case

The Meta hyperscale record shows how local politics, parliamentary pressure, land-use decisions, and scrutiny of sustainability claims can converge.

Dutch parliamentary record

Reader Checklist

Questions every new project should answer

  1. What land is being converted, who currently uses it, and what consent or compensation process was followed?
  2. How much water will the facility use daily, in peak heat, and during drought?
  3. Who pays for new power lines, substations, backup generation, and grid-balancing costs?
  4. How many permanent jobs are promised, what kind, at what wage, and for whom locally?
  5. What public subsidies are offered, and what clawbacks apply if promises are missed?
  6. Are environmental impacts assessed cumulatively across nearby campuses and power sources?

Source Log

Source-linked records used on this site