Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 announced that data centre and energy storage system will be given infrastructure status to provide easy financing to the sector.
While presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, she informed that private equity and venture capital investors invested Rs 5.5 lakh crore in startups.
She said an expert committee will be set up to suggest measures to help attract more investments. Measures will also be taken to step up private capital in the infrastructure sector, she said.
Stakeholders said the move is progressive.
"As we transit in the age of Digital India, granting infrastructure status to data centres is shot in the arm. It brings data centres development at par with other major sectors to avail long term and cheap credit, bolster data localization in wake of protection of data sovereignity in the age of globalization. This progressive step will enable India to become global data centre hub with favourable geographical location, availability of skilled resources and establishing enhanced connectivity," said Niranjan Hiranandani , CMD, Hiranandani Group.
Data centres operating in India had sought policy support and incentives, such as industry status, a reduction in goods and services tax (GST), and concessions for adopting green technologies from Budget 2022.
India’s colocation data centre (DC) industry is expected to double its capacity from 499 megawatts (MW) IT load in H1 2021 to 1,008 MW by 2023. This, in turn, would lead to the need for over five million sq ft of real estate, JLL research has said.
Mumbai and Chennai are expected to be leading DC hubs due to assured power supply, undersea cable landings and large user markets, it said.infra
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