The Indian government has decided to accord ‘infrastructure status’ to the data centres and energy storage systems sector, said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her speech while presenting the Union Budget 2022-2023. The new status will enable the data centre and energy storage sector to get credit at competitive rates and on a long-term basis with enhanced limits.
The status will provide the data centre and energy sector access to foreign funding through the external commercial borrowing route.
India, with over 750 million internet users, is well on track to becoming a full-fledged digital economy. The National Optical Fibre Network plans to connect 250,000 Gram Panchayats in the country with high-speed broadband. With increasing internet penetration in the country and more users going online, the data centre market is primed for growth. Indian data centre industry capacity is expected to double from 499 MW IT load to 1007 MW IT load by 2023.
Digital India is a flagship programme of the Government of India that aims to transform India into a digitally empowered and knowledge economy.
