India’s data centre industry is witnessing rapid expansion, with live IT capacity increasing nearly fourfold over the past six years to approximately 1.7 gigawatts (GW). The country has emerged as the leading data centre market among Asia-Pacific markets outside China, highlighting the growing importance of India in the global digital infrastructure landscape.
The growth is being driven largely by the rising adoption of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and high-performance computing. India also has around 1.3 GW of data centre capacity under construction, while another 3.2 GW of projects are in advanced development stages with land, power and permits already secured.
Maharashtra currently leads India’s data centre development, supported by strong enterprise demand and established digital infrastructure. At the same time, new hubs are emerging across states including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
The boom is creating a major opportunity for India’s technology and infrastructure ecosystem, but it also brings significant challenges. Data centres require large amounts of electricity and cooling, making power availability, transmission infrastructure, water management and sustainable energy increasingly important. Government data also shows India’s installed capacity has grown from 375 MW in 2020 to around 1,575 MW, underlining the speed of the sector’s transformation.
As AI workloads continue to expand, India’s ability to build reliable and sustainable digital infrastructure could play a defining role in the next phase of its technology growth.
