Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that data centres in India will be a major job creator for the youth and invited the "whole world's data to reside" in the country. The statements come ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from February 16 to 20. PM Modi will inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 on Monday, which will be held alongside the India AI Impact Summit.
"Data centres will be a massive job creator for our youth. We invite the whole world's data to reside in India. India is laying the foundation for a thriving AI ecosystem by expanding computing power and data centre infra capacity," said PM Modi during an interview with news agency PTI.
Data centre capacity in India reached 1.5 GW, or gigawatts, across seven major Indian cities by the end of 2025, and it is expected to cross 1.7 GW by the end of this year.
Enhanced AI and cloud-related services, powered by data stored within the country, are widely considered essential to support the Indian economy as it aims to cross the trillion-dollar mark.
While presenting the Union Budget 2026 earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a tax holiday till 2047 for companies providing cloud services by setting up data centres in India.
"I propose to provide a tax holiday till 2047 to any foreign company that provides cloud services to customers globally by using data centre services from India. It will, however, need to provide services to Indian customers through an Indian reseller entity. I also propose to provide a safe harbour of 15% on cost in case the company providing data centre services from India is a related entity," Sitharaman said.
NDTV is also hosting an AI summit on February 18
One of the themes of this year's budget was investment in critical infrastructure that will play a bigger role in the future, with the finance minister announcing that dedicated rare earth corridors will be set up in four states - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
"The scheme for rare earth permanent magnets was launched in November 2025. We now propose to support the mineral-rich states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to establish dedicated rare earth corridors to promote mining, processing, research and manufacturing," Sitharaman said.
Last year, Google announced that it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an artificial intelligence data centre in Andhra Pradesh, its largest AI hub outside the US. The US tech giant will build a 1 GW data centre campus in the port city of Visakhapatnam, combining AI infrastructure, large-scale energy sources, and an expanded fibre-optic network.
According to industry observers, the tax incentives, combined with support from global technology leaders, could strengthen India's position in cloud computing and AI.
