India can emerge as key APAC data hub, must leverage renewables: Deloitte

India has the potential to emerge as a key data centre hub in the Asia Pacific region, provided it can resolve complex power and grid challenges and align renewable integration with rapid digital growth, according to a Deloitte report. While India accounts for nearly 20 per cent of global data consumption, it hosts less than 5 per cent of the world's data centres, underscoring significant headroom for expansion, said Debasish Mishra, Chief Growth Officer, Deloitte South Asia, dwelling on details of the report brought out at India AI Impact Summit. India, he said, has a "rare structural opportunity" to emerge as one of the world's leading data centre hubs. Structural advantages such as lower construction and land costs, competitive power tariffs and a large AI-skilled workforce position the country favourably. Policy support is also strengthening, with Budget 2026-27 proposing a tax holiday until 2047 for foreign companies offering cloud services globally from India, along with ...