Osama Manzar, founder of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, highlights growing concerns regarding the rapid expansion of data centers in India. He notes that these facilities require significant land and water resources, with projections suggesting they could consume electricity equivalent to the demand of 650 million people by 2030.
The infrastructure projects are reportedly consuming water volumes comparable to the annual domestic needs of 1.3 billion people. Manzar points out that local communities are often excluded from the planning process, despite the government providing tax exemptions and low-cost land to private corporations.
Specific tensions have emerged in Visakhapatnam, where Google is constructing a facility, and in Telangana, where Microsoft is developing a data center hub. In Telangana, reports indicate that some of the acquired land is currently under dispute, with former owners seeking to reclaim their property.
Manzar argues that data centers offer limited local employment due to high levels of automation. He suggests a shift toward decentralized, hyperlocal infrastructure, proposing the creation of 250 000 village-level or district-level data centers to better serve local needs rather than global interests.