Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday chaired a CEO roundtable on Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) for scaling India’s data centre ecosystem, highlighting the sector’s potential to attract investments of around USD 200 billion.
Addressing the stakeholders at Vanijya Bhawan, Goyal said India is the “world’s best location” for setting up data centres and emphasised the need to further improve the business environment to accelerate the sector’s expansion.
The Minister expressed confidence in India’s growth prospects amid global uncertainty and volatility and highlighted the country’s 7.8 per cent GDP growth in the first quarter.
He said the data centre and semiconductor industries, along with India’s growing capabilities in artificial intelligence and expanding manufacturing base, would be key drivers of economic growth in the coming years and contribute towards the vision of a USD 30 trillion economy by 2047.
Goyal said discussions between various departments of the Centre and state governments had already helped resolve several issues faced by the industry. He added that the roundtable provided valuable inputs on how India could emerge as a global data centre hub.
The meeting, convened as a follow-up to the inaugural CEO roundtable, focused on measures to facilitate faster and sustainable expansion of data centre infrastructure, particularly in areas such as power availability, land, regulatory approvals and fiscal issues.
The discussions noted rapidly rising demand for data centres driven by cloud computing and AI workloads. Hyperscalers accounted for more than 80 per cent of data centre absorption during the first half of 2026, underscoring India’s emergence as a destination for AI infrastructure.
Participants discussed measures to ensure adequate and reliable power supply, including cluster-based transmission and substation planning, Day-1 sanctioned load, dual power feeders and facilitating procurement of renewable energy across state boundaries.
The need for data centre-ready land banks and pre-identified power-ready parcels was also highlighted to reduce project timelines and provide greater certainty to investors.
The roundtable also examined regulatory measures, including streamlined single-window approvals and appropriate building regulations for data centres.
The Ministry of Commerce & Industry highlighted progress since the previous roundtable, noting that the National Building Code 2026 now specifically recognises data centres under Group E and contains a dedicated annexure covering requirements such as fire-risk assessment and data centre-specific performance indicators.
The Ministry said the dialogue would provide the basis for actionable and time-bound reforms aimed at accelerating investment and innovation, strengthening India’s digital infrastructure and positioning the country as a trusted global data centre hub.
Representatives of the Centre and state governments, global hyperscalers, data centre developers and operators, investors and infrastructure providers participated in the meeting.
Senior representatives from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, along with representatives of around 46 data centre companies, attended the roundtable.
