By Tirthankar Mitra
India’s digital infrastructure is growing at a rapid pace. Even as the country is poised to become one of the world’s biggest data centre hubs, the success story conceals an environmental dilemma. A vast facility hosting the servers is powering everything from banking to streaming. But it requires urgent national attention for ecological reasons.
There is no reason to deny that the data centres are invisible engines of the digital economy. But their operation comes at a heavy ecological cost.
The surge in data generation, artificial intelligence and cloud computing has created a powerful demand for data centres. Billions of dollars are flowing in from global tech companies and domestic investors.
As the flood gates of investment and job generation open up, one must not lose sight of the fact that these facilities require immense quantities of water for cooling their constantly running servers. They also consume vast quantities of electricity to remain operational.
India is a country that supports nearly a fifth of the world population with a fraction of its freshwater sources. The expansion of the data centres without adequate regulation runs a grave risk. It can deepen an already precarious water crisis. There are already ominous signs.
India’s data centre water consumption could more than double in the next five years. Most data centre facilities are clustered in major cities like Mumbai, Chennai Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
Apart from being booming centres of commerce and industry, these cities are already facing recurring water shortages. The competition between digital infrastructure and domestic use is no longer theoritical in these regions.
Rapid digitalization, if left unbalanced, could transform India’s water crisis into a full-blown governance challenge. The global economic consequences can be ignored at the peril of the national economy. Reading between the lines, one comes across the irony. Digital transformation is designed to empower citizens.
But if allowed to grow unchecked, it could end up undermining the basic access of the masses to water and energy. The government’s focus on attracting investment and data localisation is economically sound.
But the absence of clear norms on water usage, cooling technologies and renewable energy sourcing leaves a glaring policy gap. The result could be local resource conflicts and disruptions that hurt both industry and community welfare.
India cannot afford to choose between digital progress and ecological security. The two must go together. There is urgent need to set up a national framework in this regard. It would include mandatory use of treated or non-potable water for cooling incentives for zero-water or air-based cooling system. All new facilities will be committed to require renewable power sources. To avoid local scarcity, low-stress water basins for future data zones should be prioritised.
The 1990s defined India’s rise through information technology. Let the 2020s be defined by how responsibly it manages the physical costs of its digital revolution. The challenge is no longer about attracting investments. It is about ensuring that growth does not erode the ecological foundations on which it rests. (IPA Service)
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