The data centre installed capacity in India is expected to increase significantly from 1.5 gigawatts to nearly 14 gigawatts by 2035, with an annual growth rate of 20-24%. This growth aligns with the expansion of the digital economy, which currently contributes 11.74% of the GDP and is projected to surpass agriculture and manufacturing by 2029-30, reaching around 20% of national income, as per a report by PwC India.
India’s data centres play a crucial role in the digital economy, supporting various sectors such as e-governance, fintech, media streaming, e-commerce, and advanced AI workloads. Vinish Bawa, Partner and Leader at PwC India, highlighted the increasing demand driven by cloud adoption, data localisation, and AI emergence, marking a pivotal moment in India’s data centre market.
To support the next phase of growth, a stable legislative and tax framework is essential to accommodate the capital-intensive and technology-driven requirements of modern data centres. This presents an opportunity for India to leverage its digital scale into sustainable global competitiveness, emphasized Bawa.
The expansion of data centres in India is bolstered by investments from both domestic and global players, real estate developers, and infrastructure investors over the next decade. While major capacity currently resides in key cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata, tier 2 cities are also emerging as hubs for edge data centres, according to the report.
