India has emerged as the top data centre market among 10 non-China Asia-Pacific nations, scoring 73 in BloombergNEF’s assessment—ahead of Indonesia (68), Japan (63), and Singapore (62). Driven by explosive AI demand, the nation’s live IT capacity has quadrupled over the last six years to 1.7 gigawatts (GW), with another 4.5 GW combined currently under construction or in early development.
| Metric / Parameter | Current Data / Projection |
| Live IT Capacity | 1.7 GW |
| Under Construction / Approved Pipeline | 1.3 GW (under construction) + 3.2 GW (land & permits secured) |
| BNEF Market Ranking | #1 in APAC (Score: 73) |
| Major Domestic Investors | Reliance Industries & Adani Group ($210 Billion combined / 45% of total investment) |
| Global Tech Commitments | Google, Amazon, Microsoft ($84 Billion combined) |
| Power Consumption Projection | 11 TWh (2025) $\rightarrow$ 91 TWh (2035) (More than 8x increase) |
Key Regional Dynamics & Infrastructure Challenges
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State Distribution: Maharashtra continues to dominate with 55% of live capacity and the largest project pipeline, backed by dense subsea cables and cloud infrastructure. Secondary hubs are expanding rapidly in Andhra Pradesh (notably Reliance’s planned $17B, 1.5 GW AI cluster in Visakhapatnam), Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.
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Power & Transmission Grid Risks: Annual data centre power consumption will surge over eightfold by 2035. While generation capacity is expanding, grid transmission infrastructure bottlenecks remain a critical risk factor for power-hungry hyperscale AI campuses.
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Cooling & Water Constraints: Though traditional air cooling predominates today, the shift to high-density AI hardware could increase adoption of water-intensive cooling systems, creating environmental friction in water-stressed urban hubs like Bengaluru and Chennai.
