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India could require an additional 45-50 million square feet of real estate space and 40-45 Terawatt Hours (TWH) of incremental power by 2030 to meet the growing demand for AI, according to a report by multinational professional services firm Deloitte.
The report further suggests that targeted policy interventions will be critical in positioning India as a global AI hub. The report identifies six key pillars for India to reach its full potential in building a world-leading, AI-ready ecosystem. These pillars are real estate, power and utilities infrastructure, connectivity and network infrastructure, compute infrastructure, talent and policy framework. "For India to accelerate its AI capabilities and realise its potential, it is necessary to introduce enabling policies to support the sector. India must develop its AI-ready infrastructure to meet this rising demand for data analytics and processing," said S Anjani Kumar, Partner, Deloitte India. While India offers an advantage in data centre real estate with lower land and labour costs, significant new constructions are needed to meet the additional AI data centre capacity, highlights the report. From a policy perspective, the report suggests that introducing a separate category for data centres in the National Building Code and recognising them under the Essential Services Maintenance Act could further incentivise specialised infrastructure development. Additionally, fast-tracking and simplifying the approvals by setting up data centre facilitation units can help boost the deployment of data centres, the report adds. The rapid expansion of data centres in India intensifies pressure on the country's power infrastructure, creating an urgent need for enhanced transmission capabilities and grid stability. The report further add that substantial investments are needed to expand generation capacity, upgrade infrastructure and better integrate renewable energy sources, which are supported by advancements in energy-efficient cooling and offshore and onshore power sourcing. Compute infrastructure is a critical component of AI data centre operations. "A greater focus on building high-performance compute infrastructure, scalable power and cooling systems and efficient networking infrastructure, with a reconsideration of policy framework, can make India a hotspot for AI-powered data centre development in the coming years," said Neha Aggarwal, Partner, Deloitte India. To stay competitive, the report suggests that India must urgently boost Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) supply, promote GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and attract foreign investment to build Exaflop-scale capacity with high-performance GPUs. The report emphasises that India's workforce must upskill to fit into AI and data centre ecosystem roles, accelerating sector growth. (ANI)
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