In a decisive push toward building India’s AI infrastructure future, NITI Aayog, in collaboration with Deloitte, organised a workshop titled ‘Accelerating AI Datacentre Investments’ in New Delhi. The event brought together senior representatives from state governments, key central ministries, and industry leaders to drive investments and strategic planning for AI-ready datacentres across the country.
The workshop spotlighted India’s vast potential to emerge as a global hub for AI datacentres, underpinned by its clean energy leadership, deep tech talent pool, and forward-looking policy framework.
Speaking at the event, Shri B V R Subrahmanyam, CEO of NITI Aayog, underscored the importance of shifting focus from land-centric investment models to building holistic AI ecosystems. “India can become the world’s AI datacentre powerhouse. But we must think beyond land and cost—we need ecosystems anchored in clean energy, innovation, and execution,” he said.
Joining him were Shri Rajiv Gauba, Member of NITI Aayog, and Ms. Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog, who shared critical insights on enabling a conducive environment for AI datacentre investments. Their messages focused on aligning state-level policies with the growing demand for AI infrastructure, improving energy and connectivity readiness, and fostering industry collaboration.
Currently, India generates nearly 20% of the world’s data but holds only 3% of the global datacentre capacity—a gap that presents both a challenge and an opportunity. As AI adoption surges across healthcare, finance, agriculture, and governance, the need for scalable, sustainable, and secure datacentres has become imperative.
Representatives from key ministries including the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and Department of Telecommunication (DoT) were also present, contributing to a whole-of-government approach in planning the AI infrastructure roadmap.
This workshop is a key component of the NITI Frontier Tech Hub initiative—an ongoing effort to enhance awareness, readiness, and strategic innovation around frontier technologies at both central and state levels.
