“We welcome the Union Budget 2026–27 as a strong and investor-positive signal at a time when global capital is actively comparing India with other data centre markets. India already contributes nearly 20 percent of the global data economy, while the global data centre market stands at approximately 120 GW. Even capturing one percent of this opportunity highlights the scale of the current capacity gap and the headroom for growth.
With deployed capacity still at an early stage, India has the potential to reach nearly 10 GW over the next five years, translating into investments of close to USD 70–100 billion across data centre infrastructure. Long-term tax certainty through the proposed tax holiday significantly improves return visibility for global investors, including infrastructure funds and real estate-focused capital, and makes Indian data centre platforms more attractive as a long-term asset class.
India’s advantage is not limited to policy support. Build costs in India are among the lowest globally at approximately USD 5 million per megawatt, compared to USD 10–12 million in several international markets, materially improving project economics. Combined with domestic manufacturing capability, reduced import dependence, and a strong clean energy ecosystem across solar and wind, the operating environment is structurally competitive.
Equally important is India’s geographic positioning. From locations across eastern and western India, data centres can serve South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa within low latency thresholds, enabling access to nearly half of the world’s population. This combination of market scale, cost efficiency, energy availability and policy clarity positions India as a credible regional and global hub for digital infrastructure.
For companies like RackBank, this Budget strengthens confidence to expand capacity, attract global capital and support the delivery of scalable, secure and sovereign digital infrastructure for both Indian and international customers.”– Narendra Sen, Founder and CEO, RackBank Data Centers, an AI Infrastructure Company.
Regards,
