India’s Data Centre Capacity Grows by 21% in 2024, Led by Mumbai
In the first half of 2024, India’s data centre capacity saw a significant increase of 21%, driven by demand from sectors such as Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI), IT, and hyperscalers. According to Savills India, a global real estate advisory firm, the total capacity rose from 778 MW in 2023 to 942 MW in 2024.
Data centres are crucial for organizations to store and distribute large amounts of data remotely. The growth in capacity is attributed to data localization plans and state incentives aimed at attracting investments in data centres.
Mumbai led the way with a substantial 54.9% share of the total capacity, followed by Chennai (12.3%), Bengaluru (8.2%), and Pune (7.2%). The market also saw transactions totaling around 200 MW in capacity during this period.
As of June 2024, the operational IT capacity stood at approximately 942 MW, reflecting a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22% since 2014, when it was 158 MW. The major absorption was recorded in hyperscalers across major cities, with colocation services also witnessing significant growth.
Srihari Srinivasan, Director and Lead Data Centre Services at Savills India, projected a strong demand for data centre capacity in India by the end of 2024, with an estimated requirement of 400 MW across major cities. Supply is expected to reach 350 MW during the same period. Data centre operators are expanding their services to include networking, cloud solutions, specialized hardware like GPUs, and other managed services.
The growth is driven by surging internet usage, the rise of 5G, and the need for ultra-low latency for mobile devices. Additionally, the increasing adoption of AI and IoT across various industries is fueling the need for data centre services, with GPU-powered solutions playing a key role in addressing these demands.
India, the world’s most populous country, generates an estimated 20% of the world’s data.
Doubts Revealed
Data Centre -: A data centre is a place where many computers and servers are kept to store and manage data. It’s like a big library for digital information.
Capacity -: Capacity here means how much data the data centres can handle. It’s measured in megawatts (MW), which shows the power needed to run the data centres.
BFSI -: BFSI stands for Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance. These are companies that deal with money, like banks and insurance companies.
IT -: IT stands for Information Technology. It includes companies that work with computers, software, and the internet.
Hyperscalers -: Hyperscalers are big companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft that need a lot of data storage and computing power.
Savills India -: Savills India is a company that provides advice and information about real estate, like buildings and land.
Megawatts (MW) -: Megawatts (MW) is a unit of power. One megawatt is equal to one million watts. It’s used to measure how much electricity is needed.
Data Localization -: Data localization means keeping data within the country where it was created. For example, data made in India stays in India.
State Incentives -: State incentives are benefits or rewards given by the government to encourage companies to do something, like building data centres.
5G -: 5G is the fifth generation of mobile internet technology. It’s much faster than the previous generations.
AI -: AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. It’s when computers can do tasks that usually need human intelligence, like understanding language or recognizing faces.
IoT -: IoT stands for Internet of Things. It means connecting everyday objects to the internet, like smartwatches or home appliances.