India is the world’s best location for setting up data centres, said Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, at the CEO Roundtable on “Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) for Scaling India’s Data Centre Ecosystem” at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi. While Chairing the meeting the Minister said the roundtable provided an engaging and fruitful platform for discussions with stakeholders from the data centre industry on further promoting the sector and enhancing ease of doing business in India.

Shri Goyal expressed confidence in India’s growth prospects amid global uncertainty and volatility and highlighted the country’s 7.8% growth in Q1. He complimented the people of India and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his decisive leadership and for instilling confidence among every Indian to contribute towards Amrit Kaal and the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

The Minister highlighted the potential of the data centre and semiconductor industries, India’s growing presence in AI and its expanding manufacturing base for global quality products, noting that these sectors would power India’s growth in the coming years and contribute towards achieving a USD 30 trillion economy by 2047. He said the interaction with stakeholders was marked by positivity and that discussions between different Departments of the Government of India and States had already helped resolve several issues. He said it was satisfying to see the industry geared up, with investments of around USD 200 billion potentially coming into the data centre industry. Shri Goyal said the meeting provided valuable insights and ideas on how India could become the data centre of the world.

The roundtable was convened as a follow-up to the inaugural CEO Roundtable to further strengthen the enabling ecosystem for the rapid and sustainable expansion of India’s data centre sector. Discussions focused on Ease of Doing Business and faster deployment of data centre infrastructure, particularly in the areas of power, land, regulatory and fiscal issues.

The discussions highlighted the rapidly increasing demand arising from cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads. Hyperscalers accounted for more than 80 per cent of data centre absorption in the first half of 2026, underscoring India’s emergence as an AI infrastructure destination. The Government expects investments in the data centre sector to reach around USD 200 billion, reflecting the scale of the opportunity created by India’s rapidly growing digital economy and AI ecosystem.

Stakeholders discussed measures to ensure adequate and reliable power availability, including cluster-based transmission and substation planning, Day-1 sanctioned load, dual power feeders and facilitation of renewable energy procurement across State boundaries. The need for DC-ready land banks and pre-identified power-ready parcels was also highlighted.

The roundtable also reviewed regulatory measures aimed at reducing project timelines and improving investment certainty, including streamlined single-window approvals and appropriate building regulations for data centres.

The discussions noted significant progress since the previous roundtable. The National Building Code 2026 now specifically recognises data centres under Group E, with a dedicated Annex on requirements for data centres, including fire-risk assessment and data-centre-specific performance indicators.

The roundtable brought together representatives from the Central and State Governments, CEOs and senior representatives of global hyperscalers, data centre developers and operators, investors, infrastructure providers and other key stakeholders.

Senior representatives from the Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, along with representatives from around 46 data centre companies, participated in the roundtable.

The dialogue will serve as a foundation for actionable, time-bound and high-impact reforms aimed at accelerating investment and innovation, strengthening India’s digital infrastructure and positioning the country as a trusted global data centre hub.

***

Abhishek Dayal/ Abhijith Narayanan/ Ishita Biswas