Pariksha SaathiNITI Aayog's Frontier Tech Hub releases Data Centre Evaluation Framework to help states plan sustainable growth
NITI Aayog's Frontier Tech Hub released the Data Centre Evaluation Framework on 14 October 2026 to help state governments plan, evaluate and facilitate data-centre investments sustainably; PIB reported the release on 15 October. Developed with inputs from industry, the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the Ministry of Power and DPIIT, the framework is structured around five pillars: power and energy; water and cooling; siting and environmental sustainability; economic and strategic value; and policy, governance and implementation. It asks states to assess grid readiness, promote renewable and storage-backed power, evaluate basin-level water stress, plan rainwater harvesting and e-waste handling, identify data-centre zones and tie incentives to measurable outcomes, without creating a new layer of regulation. NITI Aayog noted that India's data-centre capacity has grown from about 375 MW in 2020 to roughly 1.5 GW, driven by AI and cloud demand, and that the Centre offers a tax holiday until 2047 for eligible foreign cloud service providers using India-based data-centre infrastructure. NITI Aayog Member Abhay Karandikar, CEO Anurag Jain and Distinguished Fellow Debjani Ghosh spoke at the release.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) was set up by a Union Cabinet resolution on 1 January 2015 in place of the Planning Commission; the Prime Minister is its chairperson, and it has a Vice-Chairperson, full-time Members and a CEO. It is a policy think tank, not a fund-allocating body. A megawatt (MW) is 1,000 kilowatts and a gigawatt (GW) is 1,000 MW, so the 1.5 GW in this release is 1,500 MW, four times the 375 MW of 2020.
Reference: NITI Aayog’s page on its objectives and features
Check yourself: does the framework give NITI Aayog the power to approve or reject data-centre projects in states?
No. It is a decision-support tool for state governments, and the release says it does not add a layer of regulation; approvals remain with the states and the relevant regulators.
Revision task: from this release, list the five pillars and the capacity figures, and keep them apart from the standing facts about NITI Aayog above.
Test yourself
NITI Aayog's Data Centre Evaluation Framework, released on 14 October 2026, is structured around how many pillars?
Show the answer
Answer: Five
Five pillars: power and energy; water and cooling; siting and environmental sustainability; economic and strategic value; and policy, governance and implementation.
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