The Government of India has accorded infrastructure status to data centres with over 5 megawatt capacity of IT load, as per a recent notification.
The development helps data centre companies to get easier access to institutional credit at lower rates, attract foreign investments etc.
According to a notification dated 11 October, data centre is included in the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure sub-sectors by insertion of a new item in the category of ‘Communication’.
Data centres are “housed in a dedicated/centralized building for storage and processing of digital data applications with a minimum capacity of 5 MW of IT load” will be considered eligible for infrastructure status.
The capacity of data centres is measured in terms of power they consume which reflects on the scale of the server they are hosting in their facilities.
As per an ICRA report, data centres capacity expansion in India by both foreign and local firms is projected to add ₹1.05 lakh to 1.2 lakh crore investments over the period of next five years.
