Data Centers in India: Where They Are and What They Use

Government and industry sources report data center capacity in megawatts (MW). The only facility tally found is the Economic Survey 2025-26 count of about 130 privately operated and 49 government-run data centers as of June 2025, according to Business Today. Power use is estimated at about 0.5% of national electricity in 2025, per an estimate from the Centre for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) quoted by Mongabay India.

How Many Data Centers India Has and Where They Are

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) told the Lok Sabha on 5 August 2026, in a reply by Minister of State Jitin Prasada, that installed capacity is about 1,575 MW. Capacity was 375 MW in 2020.

The same reply says data centers are located across the country, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Gujarat. It adds that the industry is expanding in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. The reply describes data centers as "majorly developed, owned, and operated by private companies."

Facility counts come from a different source. The Economic Survey 2025-26, as reported by Business Today, counted about 130 privately operated data centers and 49 run by central and state government agencies as of June 2025. The same reporting says India hosts about 3% of global data centers by count and generates nearly 20% of the world's data.

MeitY's Lok Sabha reply of 18 March 2026 breaks down operational capacity by city, using industry sources. The table below gives those figures. The listed rows add to 1,520 MW.

Mumbai and Navi Mumbai together account for 790 MW, and Chennai for 305 MW. The same reply says capacity has grown from 375 MW in 2020 to more than 1500 MW till 2025.

A second source measures the market differently. India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), citing Anarock Capital, reports shares of India's total information technology (IT) power capacity. Mumbai alone holds 49%, Mumbai and Chennai together about 70%, Noida 9%, Bengaluru 8% and Pune 5%. The same source says total capacity rose 139% to 1.4 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 from 590 MW in 2019, and occupancy was 76%.

The table below lists the capacity and count statements from the sources read.

The sources do not state a common definition. Their figures come from different bodies and dates, so they should not be netted against each other or converted into one series.

How Much Power Indian Data Centers Use

Mongabay India quotes CEEW estimates that data centers used about 0.5% of national electricity in 2025. No source read gives a national data center electricity total in terawatt-hours (TWh), so that share cannot be turned into an energy volume.

The Economic Survey also addresses artificial intelligence (AI), according to Business Today's reporting. The Survey says AI workloads add volatility to power demand, which risks grid stability, and that AI infrastructure competes with households and industries. Business Today quotes the Survey as saying: "For India, as power, finance, and especially water remain binding constraints, scaling compute indiscriminately carries opportunity costs."

The same reporting says capacity is projected to "more than triple to about 4 gigawatts (GW) by 2030." The projection is a forecast for 2030. For the broader energy side of AI, see why AI uses so much energy.

The 0.5% figure covers the whole country. The sources read give no state or city electricity figure for data centers.

What the Government Says About Water

The government says it has received no concerns about data center water consumption, and its replies give no water volume. A Rajya Sabha reply published 30 March 2026, from Minister of State Raj Bhushan Choudhary of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, quotes MeitY: "MeitY reported that no concerns have been received regarding water consumption in Data Centres."

A government statement published on 6 August 2026 says: "The water requirement of data centres depends on the type of cooling technologies deployed." It says the industry is increasingly adopting direct-to-chip liquid cooling, adiabatic cooling and immersion cooling, and that AI infrastructure is moving toward closed-loop liquid cooling. It gives no water volume for any of them.

Separately, the Ministry of Jal Shakti issued groundwater extraction guidelines that govern groundwater extraction generally, including for industrial purposes, under notification S.O. 3289(E), dated 24.09.2020, with an amendment dated 29.03.2023.

Mongabay India also quotes two estimates. CEEW puts data center water use at 0.02 to 0.03% of national water demand. That is a share of demand. It is not a water volume. WRI India mapped more than half of India's data centers in water-stressed regions.

Mongabay India also cites Google's 2025 environmental report: Google used about 31 billion litres of water across its data centers worldwide in 2024. That is Google's worldwide figure. It is not an India figure.

No national water total for India's data centers was found in the sources read. For the general water side of AI, see how much water AI uses.

The Google Hub and Clearance Dispute in Visakhapatnam

Google laid the foundation stone for a data center at Tarluvada, Visakhapatnam, on 28 April, according to Mongabay India. Mongabay India describes it as expected to be Google's largest data center outside the United States (US) and part of an AI Hub announced in October 2025.

Mongabay India reports that the state allotted 480 acres in Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli districts, and that the environmental clearance covers a 1,000 MW (1 GW) data centre park issued to M/s Vizag Mega Data Centre Park Limited. The sources read do not say how that park relates to Google's facility.

Mongabay India reports that Visakhapatnam district has among the lowest groundwater levels in the state available for domestic, agricultural or industrial use, at 2.12 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) as of 1 April 2026.

The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) received the clearance proposal on 9 April and approved it on 18 April, according to Mongabay India.

Advocate Gutta Rohith of the Human Rights Forum makes further claims, as Mongabay India reports them. He says data centers are classed as buildings or township projects, so no public hearing or draft environmental impact assessment is required. He says the clearance does not disclose operational water use or the water source. The Forum has demanded that the clearance be suspended.

These are the Forum's claims. The sources read do not include a response from SEIAA to them. Google did not respond to the outlet's emails about its water plans in Andhra Pradesh before publication.

Where India's Data Center Policy Has Gaps

India has no final national data center policy. MeitY released a draft in 2020, and no final version has been released since, according to Mongabay India.

Mongabay India quotes a CEEW report saying 15 states have data center policies, most of them without Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) or Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) standards.

The Union Budget 2026-27 announced a tax holiday until 2047 for eligible foreign cloud providers using India-based data centers, Mongabay India reports.

A government statement published 6 August 2026 says: "The Government of India does not provide any subsidy for establishment of data centres." The sources read do not explain how the tax holiday and that statement fit together, so both are reported as stated.

Another region's rules are covered in data centers in Europe.

What Residents Can Do

Three steps fit the gaps the sources describe.

1. Ask SEIAA for the environmental clearance documents for a project near you. This is a suggestion and is not legal advice.
2. Ask for the water source. The Human Rights Forum says the Visakhapatnam clearance does not disclose the water source or operational water use, and the sources read show no other disclosure.
3. Start with the data center map, then read how to stop a data center.

India had about 1,575 MW of installed data center capacity on 5 August 2026, and the sources read give no single facility count or national water total. The evidence rests on MeitY's two Lok Sabha replies, the Economic Survey 2025-26 as reported by Business Today, Anarock Capital's figures as cited by IBEF, and CEEW and WRI India estimates as quoted by Mongabay India. A final national data center policy, a national water disclosure rule, or revised capacity statements from MeitY would change that answer.

Readers tracking data centers in India can start with the data center map and read the MeitY capacity reply of 5 August 2026.