Data centre boom to create 1 lakh engineering jobs in India: Jitendra Singh

He said the world is now increasingly looking towards India for technology partnerships, rather than India depending on external breakthroughs.

Dr. Singh said India is well positioned to emerge as a trusted global data centre hub, supported by policy reforms, private sector participation, clean energy integration and a rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem.

Delivering the keynote address at a special session on “Future-Proofing India’s Data Centres: Resilient Supply Chains and Opportunities” during the Annual Leadership Summit organised by AMCHAM India, he said the data economy must be viewed not merely as a technological shift, but as a strategic national opportunity that will shape investments, employment, energy systems and geopolitical competitiveness in the coming decades.

The Minister said India’s data centre capacity is projected to expand from 1.5 GW to nearly 6.5 GW by 2030, with the sector expected to generate around one lakh engineering jobs across AI systems, cooling technologies, smart grids, renewable energy integration and advanced digital infrastructure.

He noted that India’s rapidly evolving ecosystem—driven by AI, 6G, semiconductors and digital public infrastructure—is creating unprecedented opportunities for global investment and collaboration.

Describing data centres as the “next oil economy,” Dr. Singh said future global power will increasingly revolve around data control, digital infrastructure and secure technology ecosystems.

He emphasised the need for an integrated national approach involving government, industry, infrastructure providers, telecom networks, renewable energy stakeholders and research institutions to fully harness opportunities in hyperscale and colocation data centres.

Referring to the fast-changing global technology landscape, the Minister said India now stands at a comparable level of technological advancement with leading nations in several frontier sectors.

He cited the National Quantum Mission as a key example, noting that India has already achieved more than half of its targets in less than half the stipulated time. Against a goal of building 2,000 kilometres of secure quantum communication infrastructure over eight years, India has already crossed 1,000 kilometres in just three years.

Dr. Singh said the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken several bold and transformative steps to prepare India for future technologies and strategic industries.

He highlighted long-term tax incentives for foreign cloud service providers, the establishment of the National Research Foundation, the Semiconductor Mission, and the opening up of sectors such as space and nuclear energy to private participation. He said many of these reforms were once considered unthinkable, but India is now moving rapidly in areas critical to future economic growth.

The Minister added that the government is not only facilitating technology development but also building enabling frameworks to accelerate private sector innovation and deep-tech research, marking a new era of collaboration between government and industry.

He said India’s future growth in the data centre sector will depend on resilient supply chains, sustainable energy systems, advanced telecom connectivity, subsea cable infrastructure, smart cooling technologies and coordinated policy support across sectors.

Dr. Singh concluded that the alignment between policy support and private sector participation has created an ecosystem where India can emerge as one of the world’s most reliable digital infrastructure destinations.