Mr. Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India.

“In this year’s budget, giving data centers infrastructure status represents a highly progressive measure to accelerate growth of digital infrastructure. This announcement of the Government is a recognition of the importance of data centers and the need to boost financing required for this highly capital-intensive industry.  Getting access to funds and long-term loans at a lower cost and from additional lenders like insurance and pension funds will be key.

This measure, along with the announcement of 5G spectrum sale for this year, will have a positive impact on the data center industry. Many sectors like education, finance, entertainment and e-commerce, as well as work from anywhere, are highly dependent on digital ecosystem, which will drive the demand for data centers and digital infrastructure.

With India’s  geographical location advantage, existing and upcoming undersea cable links, access to skilled resources and a growing domestic demand, coupled with states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh rolling out data center incentive policies, and now with the infrastructure industry status, India is well positioned to grow as one of the most important hubs in South Asia and will play a key role in the global data centers market in the future.

With data centers expected to double their IT load capacity from 499 megawatts (MW) in H1 2021 to 1,008 MW by 2023, according to JLL research, the demand for power by the industry will be huge and further support from the government towards better deployment of Green Energy will be a catalyst in the industry’s upward curve. Data center companies like Equinix are committed to increasing the usage of renewable power and reducing carbon footprint.”