Rajeshwar Burla
Group Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA Ltd
Rajeshwar Burla
Group Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA Ltd
Five-fold increase in Indian Data Centers capacity; investments of Rs.1.0-1.2 lakh crore in pipeline
Favourable regulatory support, rapidly growing cloud computing, increasing internet penetration, the Government’s push towards digital economy, adoption of new technologies (IoT, 5G etc), growing needs of hyperscalers are some of the major factors driving the demand for data centres in the country. In addition, the Government of India (GoI) accorded ‘infrastructure’ status to the data centres in the Union Budget 2022-2023. This will enable the players to get access to longer-tenured debt at competitive rates and access to foreign funding through the external commercial borrowing route. Around 3900-4100 MW of capacity involving investments of Rs. 1.05 – 1.20 lakh crore are likely to get added in the next five years against the existing third-party data centre capacity, estimated to be at around 900-1100 MW.