Reliance Jio To Invest $950 Million In Uttar Pradesh To Build Data Centre Powered By Renewable Energy

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is set to invest $950 million to develop a data centre in Uttar Pradesh, Hindustan Times reports.

Moreover, this centre will be powered by the company’s own renewable energy plant. Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister for MSME Sidarth Nath Singh confirmed this news as he claimed that a 20 acre plot has been designated to Reliance at a cost of Rs 7000 crore for this project.

“The centre will consist of six interconnected data centre buildings offering 30,000 racks capacity and 200MW of power. It is expected to generate thousands of job opportunities in IT (information technology) sector,” Singh explained in a statement.

India’s digital economy is slated to rise to $1 trillion by 2025 and the Reserve Bank of India’s new rules on data localization has furthered the need to create more domestic data centres.

The central government is also considering implementing a policy that will vitalize companies to establish data centres. Infrastructure status will be provided to firms embarking on this move and this will help them avail long-term credit on easier terms. Furthermore, fiscal and non-fiscal incentives will also be provided by the central and state governments.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) released the draft of the Data Centre Policy that reads, “Need for data centre infrastructure within the boundaries of the country is further necessitated by the data localization provisions of proposed Data Protection Act and for protection of the digital sovereignty of the country in an increasingly connected world.”