India To Classify Data Centers as 'Infrastructure,' - More Development Expected

It is great news for data center companies, and investors in India as the country's government says it will classify data centers as infrastructure assets starting April 1, 2022. The development will help ensure that data center companies get better access to funds through loans or investments via access to long-term and cheaper institutional funds. India's Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said energy storage systems and data centers would be included in the list of infrastructure. He added that the classification would help make credit facilities available for clean energy storage and digital infrastructure. 

The data center industry was rightly pleased with the development. The CEO and co-founder of Yotta, Sunil Gupta, said the announcement is a positive step for the thriving data center industry in the country. The head of JLL, Radha Dhir, said the development would lead to a surge in data center development across India. She predicted that the data center capacity would double from 499MW to 1,008MW by next year.